
THE 
OY ENGINEER 



LUKIN 




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^ll^tckerbocker 



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THE 

BOY ENGINEERS 

WHAT THEY DID 

AND 

HOW THEY DID IT 

A BOOK FOR BOYS 



REV. J/LUKIN 

AUTHOR OF "the YOUNG MECHANV:," .)" .WHONrST l^Ap.HIN'J'i ," ErC, £TC., 



G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 

NEW YORK LONDON 

27 WEST TWENTY-THIRD ST. 24 BEDFORD ST., STRAND 

S^e finitkctbochcr |.h(-ss 
1901 



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u 






Preface, 




T is perhaps of no great importance to the reader 
to know how the outline of the following 
narrative came into my possession. Perhaps 
the surgeon who is spoken of in the introductory 
chapter placed it in my hauds, and perhaps he did 
not ; but it was in any case lawfully my own, to do with 
as I pleased ; and I therefore put it into book form for 
the benefit of my old friends, The Boys. In doing so, I 
found it necessary to add considerably to it, and so to 
modify it that, while relating what the Boy ENGiNEERa 
said and did, I might from personal knowledge of the 
mechanical arts assist the youngsters in their work. The 



vi PREFACE. 

volume, therefore, will be found to contain something 
more than a record of Boy Engineering, while, at the 
Bame time, there is no work described in it which a per- 
severing and industrious lad might not accomplish. I 
therefore hope that not only will my young readers be- 
come interested in the tale of what was done by these 
youngsters, but themselves make trial of their skill in 
the construction of similar works. 




CONTE NTS. 



CHAP. 
I. 


INTRODUCTORY .... 




11. 


OUR WORK 




III. 


WORKSHOP APPLIANCES . 




IV. 


OUR WOODEN CLOCK 




V. 


SOME MORE AUTOMATA . 




VI. 


OUR FIRST ORGAN 




VII. 


OUR HOUSE 




VIII. 


OUR WORKSHOP AND ITS FITTINGS . 




IX. 


ONE OR TWO ENGINES . 




X. 


OUR CARVING-MACHINE . 




XI. 


OUR ELECTRICAL AND PNEUMATIC APPARATB 


rs 



I 

29 

64 
83 

TOO 
121 

178 
200 
267 
306 



Chapter I. 



INTRODUCTORY. 




URING the time of my residence at the village 
of Brampton, in the year 18 — , I became ac- 
quainted with two brothers who were being 
educated at Huntingdon Grammar School, 
aboat four miles distant. They were the sons of a re- 
tired captain in the Royal Navy, who, although by no 
means rich, had sufficient means to live in comfort. His 
name was Addison, and the boys Henry and Arthur were 
better known as Harry and Tim, the latter name scarcely 
agreeing with that which his godfathers and godmothers 
had given him when he submitted, under somewhat noisy 
protest, to the baptismal rite. For a long time I could not 
divine the origin of his assumed name, but I subsequently 
discovered that it was derived from one Timothy Potter, 
an itinerant mender of pots, pans, and umbrellas, with 
whom my young friend held frequent commercial inter- 



£0V ENGINEERS. 



course as a vendor of divers articles needed in his trade. 
It was old Tim who supplied solder, and wire, and odds 
and ends of tin and brass wherewith Arthur and his 
elder brother practised various handicrafts after their own 
fashion. For these and similar articles Henrj seldom 
dealt personally with the tinker, not because he was too 
proud, but because his colleague was a better hand at 
driving a bargain, and did not object to any amount of 
higgling, 80 that he obtained his object in the end. I*m 
afraid, however, that, after all, old Tim beat young Tim 
sadly at these transactions, and made a very handsome 
profit, even when he declared that he was selling under 
cost price ; especially as I had reason to think that the 
old tinker sometimes obtained his wares without paying 
for them at all. 

My acquaintance with these lads originated in profes- 
sional attendance rendered for a somewhat severe cut 
which Harry had inflicted on himself with a chisel in some 
carpentering operation. I found him not only a courage- 
ous boy who could bear pain without flinching, but an 
extremely ingenious youngster at mechanical work, and 
(which is not always the case) one exceedingly anxious to 
acquire information both in the theory and practice of 
engineering. His younger brother shared this predilec- 
tion, and was in some respects the neatest hand of the two 
in actual work, though somewhat behind Harry in theore- 



AT SCHOOL. 



tical knowledge. Being myself fond of mechanics, and 
the possessor of a lathe and other simple requisites, we 
naturally struck up a friendship ; and perhaps the loss of 
my own son, who was an only child, tended to draw my 
affections towards two lads who were by no means 
unlike him in disposition and tastes, and of whom, 
moreover, the youngest was not very dissimilar iu 
personal appearance. Both the boys subsequently rose 
to eminence in their profession, but the eldest died 
comparatively young, having specially intrusted to my 
care an autobiography of his school-days, which I shall 
now present in a modified form to my readers. 

" We had,*' says the writer, " an old wooden outhouse, ad- 
joining the school, which had once served as a fowlhouse, 
but the feathery tenants had long since had notice to 
quit, and their home had not been transferred to new oc- 
cupants. Tim and I cast many a longing look at the old 
shed, for it was little else, and had fancied that it might 
be converted into a very tolerable workshop by a moderate 
outlay of hoarded pocket-money, if we could but persuade 
our worthy schoolmaster to let us have it. For some time, 
however, we could not make up our minds to prefer the 
request, but contented ourselves with practising a little 
diplomacy, by keeping out of all mischief, and working 
zealously at our respective tasks. Having thus established 



BOY ENGINEERS. 



a good character, which we managed also to retain, we 
determined on writing a joint petition, and we further 
proposed to do this in choicest schoolboy Latin. Having 
obtained a sheet of foolscap, as looking more official and 
business-like than notepaper, we began, after much con- 
sideration, as follows : — 

" ' Domine Reverende et Doctor prasstantissime, — Noa 
tui alumni (vix adhuc scholares appellari digni) quibus 
natur& caccethes studiorum attinet, qusB ad machinas 
fabricandas pertinent.' 

*' ' Oh, hang it,' said I, ' we shall never get to the end 
of the letter, Jim. I don't think 'tis bad grammar 
exactly, so far ; but I am in a hurry to come to the point, 
and for the life of me I can't find out the Latin for work- 
shop, or fowlhouse, or padlock. " Gallinas domus," I 
suppose, would do for henhouse ; but I vote we chuck up 
Latin and try English ; or, what is better than either, let 
us write home and ask father to come and see us, and 
then we can tell him to ask the Doctor.' 

" And so it was settled, and the ultimate result was 
that we got the shed made over to us, and an advance 
of pocket-money to repair it ; and henceforth we had a 
terrestrial paradise of our own under lock and key. 

'* Luckily for us the other boys could not get near our 
workshop without going into the Doctor's garden, which 
garden was tabooed, as it contained a good assortment of 



OUR WORKSHOP. 



fruit-trees, which would have been apt to shed their pro- 
duce iuto the pockets of the pupils instead of those of the 
owner, if a right of way had once been established. As 
for us two, we were put on our honour, which boys as a 
rule observe a deal better than garden walls and fences ; 
and though we were not unconscious of raids by outsiders, 
which at any rate tended to thin out the fruit, we our- 
selves had no part in these predatory excursions, nor did 
we ever consent to receive any share of the plunder. 

" Let me describe our workshop and its contents before 
I pass on to tell of the various works executed therein. 

" Not, however, that all was possessed at once, far from 
it ; and many a treat did we give up, in which the rest of 
the boys participated, in order to obtain some much-coveted 
tool or appliance to add to our stock-in-trade. The shed, 
now weather- tight and clean, was about twelve feet long 
and ten wide, and was of ample height, and comfortably 
thatched. At one end was a window formed of an old 
cucumber-light, which we had picked up a bargain, and 
framed by laying it on its side, and securing it to a 
convenient beam which formed our window-sill. A 
similar window, formed of some neglected cottage case- 
ments placed side by side, and newly leaded, was fitted in 
one of the longer walls, and a padlocked door at the end 
gave access to the interior. We thought it would Iook 
well to put a notice on this door of * NO admittance 



BOY ENGINEERS. 



EXCEPT ON BUSINESS,' to which was Subsequently added, to 
scare away passing tramps, ' beware of the bulldog.' 
an invisible mythic animal, supposed by a pleasing fiction 
to be housed within. We tarred the whole of the out- 
side of our workshop, dignitatis et honoris causd. A 
roughly-made carpenters bench occupied the space in 
front of the side window, over which we fixed our rack for 
carpenter's tools, the squares and saws, and similar in- 
struments hanging on nails, and the planes being ranged 
on a shelf above. 

'' In order to ensure tidiness and order, which we 
rightly believed of great importance, we agreed to fine each 
other for leaving tools out of place, or unduly damaging 
them ; and these fines, dropped fairly and faithfully into 
a money-box, were always expended upon new tools and 
materials. 

" The first time we opened this box, which we did once 
every six months, we found ourselves able to buy a grind- 
stone which happened to be for sale in the village, and 
had long been vainly coveted. It was a good stone, but 
most decidedly of a very eccentric character, as it had been 
badly used, and had a piece broken off one side, if a cir- 
cular object has a side at any part of its circumference. 
However, we determined that our grindstone should at 
any rate not disgrace our workshop, and we therefore pro- 
ceeded to correct it. 



GRINDSTONES. f 

** Kuocking out the already loosened wedges which kept 
the axle in place, we laid it upon its side on the floor, and 
drove also into the floor, through the square hole in its 
centre, a peg of wood cut to fit it easily but closely, into 
the middle of which we inserted a bradawl, which was first 
passed through the end of a lath. Having found, by 
turning the lath round upon this bradawl as a centre, the 
utmost size to which the stone could be trimmed, we com- 
pleted our beam-compasses by inserting a nail at the re- 
quired distance, with which we easily marked a circle upon 
the upper part of the stone. We found we could still 
save the greater part of it, and obtain a grindstone fifteen 
inches in diameter; the face, moreover, was rather more 
than three inches wide, quite sufficient for grinding our 
plane-irons, or even our light hand-axe. We then got a 
mallet and chisel on loan, and with much patience and 
care we managed to chip oflf little by little all that was 
outside the marked circle, and thus reduced our stone to 
shape, ready for mounting.*' 

I may perhaps digress here to tell my young readers 
how the grindstones are cut from the quarries, as it is just 
one of those operations which the majority of those who 
buy and use these articles know nothing about. At the 
time of my young friends* purchase, in fact, I chanced to 
be staying at the Rev. Doctor's, and having the run of 
their workshop, I found them at work as above described. 



BOY ENGINEERS. 



and gladly gave them the information which I now submit 
to the eyes of the readers. 

The stones ordinarily used by the carpenter are quarried 
in Yorkshire, and are called by the generic name of grit- 
stones. There are, however, many other localities which 
produce them, notably Staffordshire, which supplies a 
quality, called Bilston grit, of a harder and closer texture 
than those of Yorkshire. The cutting powers of all these 
depend upon the particles of silica contained in their sub- 
stance in union with the softer sandstone. The greater 
the proportion of silica, and the closer its particles, the 
harder and finer is the stone, so that a selection ig 
generally made by the workman to suit his special 
requirements. The stone is got out in solid blocks, which 
are cut by chisels into cylinders of greater or less diameter, 
and of varying lengths. Around these at intervals deep 
grooves are cut, marking the several stones ultimately 
required, and into these are driven wedges of wood — 
generally willow, which bears a good deal of hammering, 
as boys used to cricket-bats ought to know. These are 
driven tightly into the grooves, and the whole is left 
exposed to the dews of night, which swell the wedges, and 
the several sections are in this way split asunder without 
further treatment. The rough surfaces are, however, sub- 
sequently worked to a more accurate face with the mallet 
and chisel, by which the square hole to receive the iron 



OUR GRINDSTONE, 



flxle is also cut. The largest stones, made to revolve at a 
terrific speed, are used by the Sheffield cutlers for grind- 
ing large pit-saws and other tools, and also by stove and 
grate manufacturers and others for brightening their iron 
and steel work. When too small for this purpose, a bar 
of iron is held against them as they revolve, so as to cut 
a deep groove, and by means of wedges or chisels they are 
split into narrower or thinner sections, and handed over 
to the grinders of razors, scissors, and smaller articles. 

Our young friends having to face up the stone which 
they had trimmed to a correct shape in the way already 
described, so as to give it a face sufficiently smooth for 
use, I was able to give them a "wrinkle" which they 
were not likely to have discovered for themselves. I shall, 
however, state their difficulties and experiments in the 
words of the manuscript from which I have already quoted 
largely. 

" It did not take us very long to heat the old and bent 
handle, which from bad usage and exposure had become 
rusty and out of form, and to correct its shape ready for 
use, but it took us a good deal of manoeuvring to wedge 
it centrally in the square hole of the stone. After some 
time, however, we arranged it to our satisfaction, our 
carpenter's square assisting us very materially in getting 
it accurately fixed at right angles to the sides of the 
Btone. 



lo BOY ENGINEERS. 

*' Our workshop having an eartlien floor, we mounted 
our grindstone upon two posts driven into the ground, 
driving two staples to keep it in place — a very primitive 
method, which we subsequently altered to a better ; but it 
served our purpose for a long time, as it had no doubt 
served that of many others previously. Driving two other 
posts as a support, we placed a home-made water-trough 
underneath it, which we could easily remove ; and we also 
arranged a support for the tools, and to enable us to turn 
up and true the face of the stone. 

" For the latter purpose we begged an old file from a 
friendly blacksmith, selecting the hardest tool we could 
think of wherewith to attack our friend, who had already 
proved to us that it was ' rale grit,' as the Yankees say, 
during our preliminary operations upon its substance. 
Although, however, we worked very patiently at our task, 
the file seemed to get by far the worst of it ; and although 
we turned it over and over as the edges in turn became 
blunted, we did not appear to make much progress in our 
work. 

" Whilst, however, we were thus engaged, our kind 
friend the surgeon who attended the school, and who 
had been called upon on one occasion to dress a very 
severe cut of my brother's, paid us a visit. After watch- 
ing us a few minutes, he proposed to take a turn at the 
work himself, and rejecting the file, he picked up a bit 



OUR GRINDSTONE. w 



of small iron rod that lay near, and to our surprise 
began to cut the stone at a far quicker rate than we had 
done with the hard steel, and very soon reduced it to a 
true cylinder." 

This is worth recording for the reader's benefit, as no 
good work can be done on an untrue grindstone ; and the 
moment it is found to approach such a condition, it must 
be corrected or it will get rapidly worse. The reason for 
its untruth is sometimes that the stone is softer in one 
part than another; but very often it is the result of 
allowing it to remain partly sunk in the water in the 
trough, which renders that part more easy of abrasion in 
use than that which has been kept dry. The weight of 
the cranked handle always causes the stone to stop in the 
same position, so that the same part is invariably exposed 
to this deterioration and is never completely dry. The 
water-trough should therefore always be so arranged that 
it can be either lowered or wholly removed when the 
stone is not in use ; a still better plan, perhaps, is to have 
a drip-can with a tap above it, and to allow the water 
that runs from it upon the stone into the trough below 
to escape from the latter at once into a bucket. Our 
young friends learned all this in due time, but would 
have saved themselves many an hour's work in truing up 
their grindstone, if they had been told this and other trade 
secrets at the commencement of their mechanical career. 



12 £0y ENGINEERS. 

The reason that soft iron will answer for the purpose 
named better than steel, is supposed to be that it coutains 
less carbon, and does not heat so quickly during the 
operation. It is at any rate a proved fact, and the best 
tool to use is a bit of small rod to turn down the stone, 
followed by a bit of hoop iron to give the finishing touch 
to the surface. The iron must be held firmly on a rest 
fitted for the purpose, pointing downwards, and the bar 
must be turned over and over as the upper edge gets 
blunted. It is at best a somewhat tedious operation, but 
absolutely necessary if the stone does not run truly ; and 
the only way to lighten the task is never to allow of any 
irregularity, but to correct at once the slightest tendency 
to eccentricity. 

We soon found, says the narrative, the benefit of the 
hints given us by our good-natured friend, and hence- 
forward we always kept a rod of iron and a bit of hoop on 
purpose for this work. Moreover, we learned to save the 
face of the stone by traversing the tool to and fro across 
it when grinding it, especially if it were narrow or 
pointed. The gouges gave us most trouble, but we 
eventually found it better to lay these across the stone, 
rolling them over and back again as the work proceeded, 
instead of holding them in the position of chisels and 
similar tools. Channels and grooves in the grindstone 
were, however, among the list of finable offences, and 



TOOL-GRINDING. 13 



until we got well used to the work, our money-box got 
thereby many an odd copper added to its treasures. 

jl^nother secret of tool-grinding was explained to us on 
a subsequent visit of our friend, who found us at work 
with the stone running from instead of towards us. It 
had appeared to us in our ignorance that this must of 
necessity be the right mode of grinding, because we 
fancied that if the stone were made to run as it were 
against the edge of the tool, it would blunt instead of 
sharpening it. We had, however, always noticed that a 
wire edge or thin flexible filament of the steel formed when- 
ever we used the grindstone, which we had to get rid of 
by drawing it across a bit of wood before we could 
produce a keen edge upon the oilstone; and sometimes 
this would also form a second time upon the surface of the 
latter, which then needed to be wiped and cleaned before 
we could go on with our sharpening. 

Our friend, however, told us that this wire edge was 
but the result of our mode of grinding, the stone tearing 
away the steel when it got very thin, whereas if we turned 
it towards the edge, the particles would be driven inwards 
towards the solid metal, and as it were compressed. This 
we found to be really the case, and thus we made a step 
forward towards a workman-like mode of grinding our 
tools, and gradually learned the art of producing upon 
them a good and evenly-levelled edge. 



14 



BOY ENGINEERS. 



It must not, however, be supposed that the subsequent 
operation of setting them on the oilstone was acquired 
without a long series of failures ; for at first we rather 
blunted than sharpened them, and for any special work 
were only too glad to call in the aid of the village carpenter 




Pig. I. — Our First Lathe 

or his apprentice to put our plaues and chisels in working 
order. After long and careful practice, however, we 
triumphed over this difficulty, as we did over others of a 
more serious character. 



POLE-LATHE. 15 



Our great ambition was to possess a lathe, which we 
intended to stand nnder the window at the farthest end 
of the workshop. There were not at that period the same 
chances that subsequently existed of obtaining articles of 
this kind ; there were, indeed, a few firms in London 
ready and willing to supply them, but only at such a 
price as there was no chance of our being able to afibrd for 
many a long year. No " English Mechanic '* or *' Bazaar" 
or other periodical existed whose columns might offer to us 
a second-hand tool, and it became evident to us that we 
must contrive to make a lathe ourselves with such appli- 
ances as we could muster, and with the help of the black- 
smith or old Tim. 

The only advantage we had was the power of inspecting 
two lathes possessed by a chairmaker and by the carpenter. 
The former was what is called a pole-lathe, a very simple 
affair, but in the hands of Bill Birch the owner capable 
of a ofreat deal of o^ood work. 

The rough sketch given in fig. i will sufficiently explain 
its construction as arranged in our own workshop, for it was 
this lathe which we ultimately decided to make, postponing 
to a future day the construction of a more serviceable one, 
after the pattern of Bob Chip's the carpenter. It will be 
Been that the bed of this lathe consisted of a pair of beams 
placed parallel to each other, and resting upon a frame 
at each end. We planed the upper surface of these aa 



i6 BOY ENGINEERS. 

well as we could, and the front of the foremost one for 
appearance' sake, leaving the rest rough. As the pieces 
were of beech, this was to us boys a formidable undertak- 
ing. We quickly discovered that beech was far more 
difficult to face up than deal, to which we had hitherto 
been accustomed. Our long or "jack plane*' sufficed to 
take off the rougher outside of the wood, but the grain 
did not run straight from end to end, but seemed to delight 
in curls and knots, which defied our efforts to reduce them 
to a smooth surface. 

But here again our medical friend came to the rescue 
and showed us how to conquer the enemy. He pointed 
out to us that the mouth of our jack-plane being worn 
was too wide, and that the second iron, called the break- 
iron, which was fixed upon the cutting iron of the plane, 
was too far from the edge of the latter. To plane knotty 
wood, he explained to us that the mouth of a plane should be 
very narrow, the break-iron not more than one-sixteenth of 
an inch from the level of the cutting edge, and the latter set 
very fine — i.e.y only allowed to project a very minute de- 
taiice beyond the sole. With a plane thus arranged very 
thin shavings are taken, which are fairly cut, and not split 
off from the surface of the wood ; but it is also necessary 
to work the plane in all directions where the grain la 
curly and uneven, so as to cause it to cut them lengthwise 
instead of across. After the surface has been levelled 



LATHE DETAILS. ty 

with such a plane, called a trying-plane, it is often 
necessary to go over it again with a smoothing-plane, 
which is a very short one, carefully sharpened and set, as 
it is easier to work this in various directions than it is to 
do so with a longer plane. The latter, however, insures 
a more truly level surface. 

On or rather between the pieces forming the bed we 
placed a pair of poppits, of which a spare one is seen upon 
the floor, showing, more accurately than those above, the 
tenoned part, with the mortise-hole by which they were 
secured in any desired position by wedges underneath the 
bed. Through each of these was a pointed screw, turned 
up to form a winch-handle by which to move it, and 
advance or withdraw the point. Between these was 
mounted the wood to be turned. Through a hole about 
half-way up the poppits a square iron rod passed, which 
was bent to form a hook, and upon these rested a long 
board of beech to support the tools during the operation 
of turning. The upper edge of this was level with the 
centre-points, and we could push in or draw out the hooks 
according to the size of our work. We afterwards found 
that this board troubled us by falling forward when in 
use, so we bored a hole in each poppit with an auger 
above that through which the hooked irons passed, and 
fitted in these a couple of bed-screws, which we got for 
fourpence ; and by screwing them to bear on the inside 



1 8 BOY ENGINEERS. 

of the board, we kept it firmly pressed against the hooka 
and made it very steady. 

The next consideration was the treadle and its fittings 
The treadle itself was oiilya hoard an inch thick, under which, 
at the part resting on the floor, we fixed two short spike? to 
prevent it slipping about when in use. From the farthest 
end a cord ascended, taking a turn round the worK, and was 
fastened to the end of a strong ash pole, of which oLe end 
was fixed to the beams overhead, and the other was arranged 
to come over any part of the lathe. This we managed by 
putting a round pin through the pole about eighteen inches 
from its larger end, and driving this pin into a convenient 
beam, thus allowing the pole a horizontal motion on the 
pin. Then we nailed a stout bar just over the end of the 
pole, under which it was free to move, but which held it 
down securely against the tendency to rise from the strain 
of the cord at the other end. This pole, therefore, formed 
a strong spring, which raised the treadle off the floor when 
the pressure of the foot was relaxed, but yielded to that 
pressure when the treadle was i)ressed downwards. During 
the latter motion the cord caused the work to rotate 
several times towards the workman, so that a tool held 
against it would cut it freely, but as the pole sprang 
U])ward again this motion was reversed, and during that 
time the tool had to be withdrawn slightly, so as to clear 
the work. 



INDIA. 19 

Many an hour had we watched the old chairmaker 
turning at a lathe like this, and he certainly worked very 
fast, and with apparent ease ; but it must be confessed 
that for some time we could do very little, for the rough 
pieces of wood caused the tools to hop about upon the 
bar which formed the rest, and we could not manage to 
advance and withdraw it at exactly the proper moment, so 
that our work was done but slowly, and was at best very 
rough. 

Soon after we had finished this somewhat unique piece 
of machinery, our friend the surgeon paid us a visit, and 
gave us a very interesting account of the way in which 
turned work is managed by the natives of India, and also 
by the Africans and others. I give the account in his 
own words as nearly as I can recollect them. 

" Soon after my arrival in India, where I was to act as 
an army surgeon, I had occasion for several turned articles ; 
for though I had practised carpentry, I had never tried 
my hand at the lathe. I wanted some legs to complete a 
small table, and some rounds for a chair back ; a leg of 
my pocket camp-stool was also broken, and needed to be 
replaced by a new one. At first I proposed to round my 
pieces as well as I could with a spokeshave, as I had 
no idea where to obtain turned ones ; but Captain Fellows, 
an old friend, seeing me thus employed, suggested sending 
for a turner, who, he told me, would do all I wanted for a 



BOY ENGINEERS. 



sum amounting in Englisli money to fourpence. ' But, my 
dear fellow,' I replied, ' I have no lathe, and there is not 
one, I believe, in the place ; so that it is no use to send 
for the turner, even if such could be found amongst 
these woolly-headed black-skins.' ' Wait a bit,' he replied, 
' and you'll soon have lathe and workman too ; ' and 
addressing a few words in Hindostanee to one of his 
native servants, the fellow salaamed and hastened off. 

"Returning in about twenty minutes, he was accom- 
panied by a native carrying a small adze in one hand, and 
a bag of matting in the other, containing all requisites, as 
I soon found, for his work. Taking a couple of long wooden 
tent-pegs, he bored a hole through each with a native 
drill in a few seconds, and drove into them a couple of 
pointed nails or spikes. He then with a mallet hammered 
them a short distance apart into the ground, placing them 
just so far asunder as the length of the table leg he pro- 
I)08ed to turn. The pegs stuck out of the ground perhaps 
nine inches. These were the poppits, and the solid 
ground, which was dry and hard, as it generally is in hot 
countries, was the lathe-bed. Two more tent-pegs were 
driven, and a straight-edged board nailed to them at the 
proper height to form the rest, and the lathe was so far 
complete, the whole having been arranged within ten or 
twelve minutes. I had seen a pole or chairmaker's lathe 
similar to that which you boys have now made, but I waa 



EASTERN WORKMEN. ai 

sorely puzzled how the spring pole could be fixed, as there 
were not only no workshop beams overhead — the roof of the 
shop being the clear sky above — but no overhanging tree 
to which a spring of any kind could be fixed. The 
mystery was presently solved. A strip of raw hide waa 
the cord, which was passed round the work, and the ends 
given to two natives, who sat on the ground, one in front 
and one behind the lathe. Each of these pulled alter- 
nately, and set the work in rapid rotation, singing a sort 
of monotonous chant the while, which had the efiect of 
keeping time. It was a regular case of ' Seesaw, 
Margery Daw ; ' and I was told that the natives will con- 
tinue this apparently back-aching work all day without 
complaint. As soon as the work had made a few revolu- 
tions, the pointed spikes were driven into the ends a 
little farther to render it more secure, and a little grease 
was added to prevent undue wear, and make the wood 
revolve easily. The turner then took up his tools, which 
were of a very rough description, and no English workman 
could have done better work, or done it more rapidly. In 
a few minutes the rough wood was shaped to its intended 
form, measured in length and size from time to time with 
a bit of Indian grass, and finally polished with a bit of 
some kind of native rush or reed, like what is known to 
turners aa Dutch rush. When several pieces were needed 
of the same size and length, they were all roughed over 



2 3 BOY ENGINEERS. 

by the hand adze, or bassoolah, before any one of them 
was put in the lathe to be turned ; and nothing surprised 
me more as a new-comer than the skill with which this 
heavy but keen-edged tool was wielded by the native work- 
men. It appeared to me that they could do any sort of 
work with it, heavy or light, from roughing out the stem 
of a pipe to trimming the timbers of a ship. All natives 
sit on the ground upon or between their heels, in what 
to us would be a most uncomfortable position, and they 
hold the work or the tools partly by means of the great 
toe, which, never having been confined in hard leather 
boots, is as pliable and useful as the fingers. If a native 
drops a tool, he will generally pick it up with his foot — an 
action peculiarly ridiculous and grotesque to unaccustomed 
spectators. I have even heard that a native tailor can 
hold his needle in one foot, and thread it with the other, 
and from what I have myself seen I am disposed to be- 
lieve the report. 

" In describing the formation of a native Indian lathe 
I spoke of drilling the holes for the two pointed screws 
The Indian and Eastern carpenters never use gimlets, at 
we do, but a home-made and very effective drill, witk 
which they bore holes with great rapidity, and without 
any fear of splitting the wood. 

" The drill is made almost wholly of hard wood, and in 
two parts, of which the upper is held in the hand, whil« 



INDIAN DRILL-STOCK. 23 

the lower is made to rotate by means of a drill bow, 
similar in principle to those used in England by watch- 
makers and others. The bow is made of one of the 
native hard woods of a springy character. I saw one of 
these drills constructed on one occasion as follows : — 

*' A bit of wood was selected about a foot long, which 
was turned in the lathe, smooth and rounded off at the 
end intended for the handle, but with a few grooves at 
or about the middle of its length, below which it was 
made cylindrical. This was sawn across to divide it into 
two pieces, of which the shortest was to form the handle, 
the rest the body of the drill-stock. At each end of the 
latter a hole was bored, one for holding the actual drill, 
the other for a spindle of very hard wood, which was 
driven firmly into it, and I believe secured by some native 
glue or cement. This pivot was like a large-headed pin, 
the head being made as round and smooth as a small 
marble, and the shank nicely rounded. This I did 
not see made, but I should say it was done in the lathe, 
as it was very nicely formed, and could hardly have been 
accomplished by hand alone. This part had to be fitted 
accurately into the head-piece or handle in which it was 
to work, and the cavity to receive it was made aa 
follows : — 

" First, a hole was drilled in the centre of the piece, th** 
size of the neck of the hardwood spindle, and then the 



24 ^OV ENGINEERS. 

whole piece was carefully sawn down lengthwise, so that 
half of this hole was in each. The distance from the end 
of the spindle to the knot was then measured, and a 
cavity for the latter was made with a gouge — half in 
each piece — and these cavities were made as smooth as 
possible, so that they resembled the two halves of a bullet 
mould. A hole was then drilled in one of these pieces 
to form an oil-hole sloping downwards into the cavity; 
after which the spindle was put in its place, and the 
two halves of the handle tied together with Indian grass, 
to see whether the work was sufficiently accurate. At 
first it appeared that the lower part had too much play, 
but a tap on the end, by driving the spindle a little 
farther into the lower part, brought the ends of the two 
parts closely together, after which there was no undue 
freedom of motion, and the fit was perfect. 

" Before untying the grass bands which kept the two 
halves of the handle together, two holes were drilled for 
rivets, which were of stout brass wire, and when these 
were in place and headed up, the ties were removed, and 
the drill-stock nearly completed. The hole at the 
bottom, however, to receive the drills, was ingeniously 
* bushed ' with a bit of bone or ivory, into which a 
somewhat smaller hole was made, tapering to receive 
the end of the bits of wire out of which the drills 
were formed. These, in the present case, were apparently 



NATIVE DEXTERITY. 25 



made of some umbrella ribs picked up in camp, as they 
were of a small size ; and these steel ribs sufficed well 
enough for the purpose. They were merely broken off, 
heated, and flattened upon a stone anvil, and then 
ground into the required shape by help of a bit of whet- 
stone or native hone, upon which also the other end was 
slightly tapered to fit the hole in the dr'll-stock. Some of 
the larger drills are squared at the end like the " bits " of 
our own carpenters, and then the hole in the stock is first 
drilled and afterwards burnt out square with an old nail 
or other implement. For the natives never find fault with 
their tools," added our friend, " as small boys are wont to 
do ; but they make good use of all sorts of odds and ends 
of iron and steel, from the rusty hoop of a barrel to the 
broken blade of a knife. In fact, nothing in the way of 
metal comes amiss to them, but their natural ingenuity 
and acquired dexterity of hand enable them to turn to 
practical use various broken articles which we ourselves 
would most probably consign to the dust-heap as abso- 
lutely worthless." 

Naturally enough, after hearing this account, we became 
far more sanguine about our own lathe ; for, we argued, if 
those nigger fellows can do good work with their rough- 
and-ready contrivances, we can do the same with ours, 
which is, at any rate, one degree better, because we don't 
want two people to work it besides the turner. Moreover, 



b6 boy engineers. 

nothing would now content us but an Indian drill-stock, 
which we determined to make for our own use, although 
we were, at the same time, perfectly well aware that, with 
the same principle of construction, much more efficient 
tools could be and were actually made and sold at the 
shops. Our kind instructor nevertheless encouraged and 
persrually assisted us in the accomplishment of our task; 
because, he said, it would give us the opportunity not 
only of putting our lathe to some use, but also of 
exercising our patience and skill in the production of work 
which needed accuracy. We therefore tried our best, and 
succeeded, but not until one or two failures had been in- 
curred, the first arising from our having sawn the stock 
across not quite at right angles to its length, so that the 
ends would not work accurately together. We had con- 
sequently to turn another ; and this time, by our friend's 
advice, we made a mark round it with the chisel while in 
the lathe as a guide for the saw, and another a little way 
on each side of the first, so that, if we should fail to cut 
exactly on the line at first trial, we could still saw oflf 
each piece again at the other marks, and thus stand 
another chance of success. 

Our first attempt, however, this time proved satisfactory, 
and we completed our drilling apparatus very much tx) 
our satisfaction. We also found the tool an exceedingly 
useful one, and frequently preferred it to any other. For 



OUR DRILL-STOCK. 



27 



holes in thin stuflf, which hitherto we had split at divers 
times with our ordinary gimlets, we always used our Indian 
drill-stock ; and we found that for hard wood, which it was 
a difficult task to bore with a gimlet at all, the drill was 
exactly the tool required. We used it with a sixpenny 
bow of lancewood, fitted with a bit of catgut clock-line ai 
a string ; for we found a hempen cord would not 
Btand the work, as it quickly frayed and broke. 
The greatest difficulty we had to contend with 
in the manufacture of this drill-stock was the 
spindle and knob. We tried boxwood and ebony, 
and one or two other kinds, but all to no 
purpose, as they proved too brittle for our 
requirement, unless we made the 
spindle much larger than was other- 
wise necessary. At last, however, we 
got hold of a bit of ironwood, and 
by dint of rasp and file — for we had 
no tool that would cut it — we even- 
tually succeeded in giving it the 
necessary bullet-headed shape. It 
was nevertheless a long job ; and even 
at last — although when in place it 
seemed to work very well — the 
globular head was not, it is to be confessed, of very 
accurate form. For its bed we got hold of an iron bit 




28 BOY ENGINEERS. 



called " a cherry," and made to fit a carpenter's brace. 
They can be had at the London tool-shops, and are used, 
in fact, to recess the cavities of bullet moulds, being made 
of hard steel, and channelled so as to have many cutting 
edges. 

Our friend kindly lent us a drawing of one of these 
native drill-stocks, which, however, was lost with some 
other mechanical sketches. 

The writer has had the good fortune to find another 
recently engraved in the ^' English Mechanic," and by 
the editor's permission it is now copied into this little 
work. This will make its construction quite clear, with 
the help of the description already given. 




Chapter II. 



OUR WORK, 




MUST now relate what we contrived to accoro. 
plish with our imperfect appliances ; and it may 
encourage other boys of mechanical tastes to 
state that some of our early work is still in 
existence after the wear and tear of ten or fifteen years, 
and is almost as serviceable as ever. This, I have no 
hesitation in saying, would not have been the case had we 
yielded to the usual temptation to do such things care- 
lessly ; but, from the commencement of our career, we 
determined to act in the spirit of the old proverb which 
tells us that "what is worth doing is worth doing well." 
Our first attempt at regular carpentry was a set of 
steps for our own use in putting up shelves, and other 
such jobs as needed longer legs than we were possessed oi. 



30 BOV ENGINEERS, 

They were not required to be very high, and we had in our 
possessica a board or two of deal an inch thick and nine 
inches wide, that appeared well suited to our need. 

We found, on measuring these, that we could make the 
side pieces five feet long, which we fancied would result 
in a set of steps four feet high when placed in the usual 
sloping position for use. As this was a first attempt, 
we did not propose to make them with a hinged frame at 
the back to shut up, but with fixed supports, especially as 
we could then contrive to put braces to stiffen the whole if 
there should seem to be any groggiuess in their condition. 

The first point was to see to the state of our phines. 
The jack-plane, having been used upon the lathe-bed to 
take off the rough outside of the beech bearers, was 
evidently in a very blunt condition, though not damaged 
by notches, and we had to try our hand at grinding and 
setting it. This, I think, rather pleased us than otherwise, 
as it would put our new grindstone to the test. After 
what our friend had told us about wire-edges, we did not 
fall into the error of turning the stone away from the 
work, but we had some difficulty in holding the plane- 
iron steadily, and preventing it from an occasional dig in, 
thereby cutting into the stone, and damaging its edge 
instead of improving it. Being the eldest, I asserted my 
privilege to be head-carpenter, and Tim, as carpenter's 
a])}irentice, had the task of working at the handle. I 



OIL-STONES. 31 



should not like to say how often he had to change hands, 
nor how unduly his labours were extended owing to my 
own inefficiency. First I found that I was grinding the 
tool more at one corner than the other ; then the bevel 
was rounded instead of being quite flat, as I knew it 
should be; but at last matters appeared more satisfactory. 
Trying it with our carpenter's square, we found the 
edge fairly at right angles to the sides of the iron, and 
the bevel tolerably flat and even ; and glad enough wais 
poor Tim to let go the handle and give his arms a rest. 

Then I set about the difficult task of finishing the cut- 
ting edge upon the oil-stone. We had bought one of these 
out of the stock of a bankrupt carpenter, arguing in our 
minds that we were far more certain in this way to get the 
genuine article than if we went to a tool-shop ; and no 
doubt we were perfectly right in our supposition. It 
turned out eventually that we had thus secured not only a 
real Turkey stone, but one of good cutting powers, and even 
hardness — qualities of great value and importance, in which, 
however, many of the Turkey stones fail. Had our boy- 
hood been of later date, we should have found other and 
cheaper stones in the market, especially Washita oil-stone, 
which is excellent for carpenter's tools, and Arkansas, also 
from America, some of which is very fine and hard ; but 
in our day the ones most readily obtainable were Turkey 
and Cborley Forest oil-stones, both, however, very service- 



32 BOY ENGINEERS. 

able, and fit for our purpose. It was with a good deal of 
anxiety that I set about the job in hand, which indeed 
looks easy, but requires a good deal of knack and some 
practice for its proper performance. However, I set to 
work, and diligently rubbed the iron a few times up and 
down the stone, as I had seen Bob Chips do with so 
satisfactory a result. I then stopped to look at the edge, 
Tim also being at my elbow to assist in criticising the 
work. Feeling the edge, we both agreed that it was 
tolerably smooth and sharp, but somehow it did not look 
exactly right. We had, in fact, rounded off the first- 
made bevel, instead of making a fresh one on the oil-stone, 
which gave it what Tim called a doubtful look, as if 
we did not precisely know at what angle we wished to 
grind it. 

We, nevertheless, determined to use it in its present 
state, lest we should make bad worse in further attempts 
to improve it. We accordingly put it back into its stock, 
and set it, after one or two trials, at the right distance 
below the sole. Although it proved fairly satisfactory in 
cutting powers, we were very warm, and weary too, before 
we had finished the broad surfaces of our two boards, and, 
in addition, we had not exactly satisfied our expectations 
as to the squareness of the edges to the faces. We had 
not, as we afterwards learned, gone about the process in 
the right way ; and as other boys may some time or other 



PLANING. 33 



read of our diflSculties and failures, I will here add the 
proper order of carrying out this work, and squaring up 
such boards or pieces of wood. 

The first process is to level one of the broad 
faces. The eye alone will not be a sufficient guide 
in testing the correctness of the planed surface, which 
must be tried by the edge of a square, or by a 
straight-edge such as the edge of a carpenter's rule. 
But it is much more satisfactory, and often absolutely 
necessary, to have two strips of wood, very truly planed 
upon their edges, which can be stood upon the board at 
opposite ends. If the board is " out of winding," i.e.., 
has not a twisted surface, the tops of these straight- 
edges will coincide, if the eye is brought to a level with 
them ; but if it is otherwise, they will of course not agree. 
The board must be tested in this way as the process of 
planing it proceeds, moving the straight-edges to various 
parts of it, and noticing what particular places require to 
be lowered to reduce the whole surface to a uniform 
level. Then must be planed one of the edges ; and this 
is where we made the mistake, as we planed first of all 
the two opposite sides of the board. This first edge 
must be tried with the square at all points, and, if very 
narrow, it will prove rather a severe test of a young 
workman's skill. Even in the case of a board an 

inch thick, such as that upon which we were operating, 

c 



J 4 ^OV ENGJNEEHS, 

much care will be required, and probably some time will be 
expended before it becomes accurately square to the sides. 
Then from this the third side must be worked, and lastly, 
the second edge, always testing from the last finished sur- 
face. This lesson, however, we had not at the time learnt, 
and the consequence was, we worked in a hap-hazard 
way, and our pieces were not very accurately planed. 
We did not recognise this until we came to fit the tjteps, 
when we were somewhat astonished to discover that they 
required to be forced into place in one part, while in 
another they fitted too loosely, although we had taken 
great care to cut them all accurately to the same length. 
The sides were, in fact, "winding," and, consequently, 
were not parallel to each other at all points, and the 
tendency of the steps was to take up a position like those 
of a winding staircase. To correct this we had to sac- 
rifice closeness of fit between some of the pieces, and to 
cut others out of square, and this rendered our steps so 
rickety, that we were obliged to add braces to keep 
them together, much to our disappointment ; for, so far 
as our knowledge went at the time, we had taken much 
pains with our work. 

After planing the side pieces, as stated, to what we 
at the time believed true surfaces, we set oflf the different 
distances for the steps. This necessarily puzzled us con- 
siderably, as we could not think how to mark the places 



OUR STEPS. 35 



for the ends of the steps, so that when the sides were 
placed in a slanting position in use, they would be 
horizontal. Moreover, we saw that the ends of the side 
pieces must be so cut as to be parallel with the steps. 
At Tim's suggestion, however, we set up one of these 
edgewise, leaning it against the wall at about the required 
slope, and then, while it was in this position, drew by 
hand a line across it from the top corner, which touched 
the wall as nearly horizontal as we could, and then laying 
the board again upon the bench, we made this line true 
by ruling it. We then took this as our starting-point, 
and from each end measured equal distances to represent 
the top of each step, finishing by a similar line to show 
us where to cut ofi" the bottom piece, so that the steps 
would have a firm bearing upon the ground. We then 
sawed it oiBf correctly at each end, and used it as a gauge 
by which to mark the other side piece. Now we found 
that if we set our five-feet plank with its edge against 
the wall at the height of four feet from the ground, as 
we intended it to be when finished, we were working 
out that well-known mathematical fact, that the square 
of the base of a right-angled triangle equals the sum 
of the squares of the two sides which contained the right 
angle ; for when we measured the distance from the wall 
to the lower corner of our board, we found it to be 
exactly three feet. The square of five feet we knew to 



36 BOY ENGINEERS. 

be twenty-five, which was just equal to the square of 
four feet, or sixteen added to the square of three feet or 
nine, equalling twenty-five. The base of the triangle was 
of course the inner edge of the plank which touched the 
wall and the floor, and was practically only a straight 
line. After cutting away the triangular pieces at each 
end, which reduced the board to what we knew was 
called a rhomboid, we found that we had about four feet 
five inches to divide equally for the steps. We called it 
in the rough four feet six, and agreed to put five steps, 
the upper surfaces of which should be nine inches apart ; 
then there would be the top step of all, nailed to lap 
over somewhat, and the lowest division — e.g., the space 
from the last step to the floor — would take up the odd 
inches, namely, eight, making up the fifty-three which we 
had altogether at our disposal. 

In order to make the above description quite clear, an 
outline sketch is appended, representing what has been 
stated above. A is the board leaning against the wall; 
its upper corner, D, resting at four feet from the floor ; and 
its bottom corner, E, resting upon the floor at a distance 
of three feet from the wall. The triangular bit E, which 
had to be cut off, lowered the whole six inches, so 
that when completed, the steps were just three feet six 
inches, just six inches shorter than we had proposed, but 
we could not foresee this as a regular carpenter would 



OUR STEPS. 



37 



have done, and practically it was not of much import- 
ance. 

Having set off on each edge the position of the upper 
surface of the steps, and ruled lines from one mark to the 
other, we made similar lines an inch below each, to mark 
the thickness of the several steps, and we intended then. 




^. 3_^eet ^ 



Fig. 3.— Our 

with a tenon saw, to cut a little way into these marks, 
and with a narrow chisel to remove the intervening wood, 
80 as to let the steps into the sides, as we had seen them in 
a set made by the carpenter. But we did not want this 
to show upon the front edge, and we therefore, with our 
square placed as in the figure, set off the end of each 
groove, which thus ended slightly within the edge of the 
side pieces. I think a glance at the sketch will render 



38 BOY ENGINEERS, 



all this perfectly clear, and indeed it is all simple enough, 
but takes a good many words to describe it accurately. A 
perspective view of the finished article is also added, in 
order to show the back and sides. 

We made a frame like H of strips two inches wide and 
three-quarters thick, fitted with tenoned and morticed joints; 
and here, being forewarned by experience, we were addi- 
tionally careful to plane up the pieces truly, so that the frame 
should be flat and not twisted. We left one side higher 
than the other to form a stay or handle to steady the climber 
whenusingit. Having glued and pinned this frame together, 
we then braced it across with two half-inch strips, nailed on, 
and notched into each other where they crossed. When 
finished, we attached it by side strips, KL, to the strips 
on each side with screws, the heads of which we let in by 
a countersink. 

Thus our set of steps was finished, and when we had 
painted them stone colour, and also painted our name 
in black letters, carefully ruled, which we traced first 
of all from letters on some handbills, our performance 
was by no means discreditable to young apprentices like 
ourselves. True, there was a little putty here and there 
to fill up open places in some of the joints, and the steps 
required at last a little secret adjustment before they 
would stand quite steady ; but the paint concealed the 
first, and as to the last, we had little to complain of after 



BILL BIRCH. 39 



finally adjusting the length of the legs; so that this set of 
home-made steps proved extremely useful, and, to our 
pride and satisfaction, were actually borrowed on several 
occasions by the inmates of the schoolhouse. Even the 
head-master used them sometimes to reach a book from 
his top shelves, and ultimately gave us an order, to our 
great delight, for a similar set, for which, I now think, he 
paid us about double their real value. 

We had not as yet done much with our lathe, on 
which, nevertheless, our ambition chiefly centred. We 
therefore agreed to set bravely to work to conquer once 
for all the difficulties we had hitherto met with in its use. 
I doubt, however, whether we should have done this for a 
very long time, if we had not succeeded in bribing Bill 
Birch to give us a few lessons. Nothing, however, 
would induce him to try our own lathe, or hardly to look 
at it. " He knew," he said, without examining it, "that 
it would not answer for real work ; but if we could get the 
Doctor to allow us to come to him the first half-holiday, 
and would give him half-a-crown to pay for his time and 
trouble, he would show us how to go to work in the right 
way." 

Although our pockets were not very well lined, we 
agreed to these rather hard terms, and as a lucky birth- 
day had given us a tip from home, which had not yet 
gone the way of tips in general, we obtained leave from 



40 BOY ENGINEERS. 

the Doctor on the ensuing Saturday, and presented our- 
selves at Bill's workshop, money in hand. 

" Well, young gents," said Bill, " I am just going to 
do a bit of turning, and you can stand by and look oDj 
but don't you be talking unless I speak to you, 'cause 
that only bothers me and don't help you. But old Bill 
Birch can turn, mind you. Why, lads, before I were your 
age, I could turn all the parts of a chair, and put it 
together too ; but then d'ye see. Bill had a feyther, and 
he had a stick, and that stick were a good deal used 
instead of words in teaching me my trade. 'Twas — 
* Hulloa, Bill, here's a notch in my chisel I ' ' Halloa, Bill, 
here's a good chair leg spoilt ! ' and then down came the 
stick pretty sharp. So I soon learned to do my work as 
it ought to be done, and when feyther grew old and 
rheumatic, he would hobble into the shop and look on, 
and say, ' Bill Birch, lad, you're a turner, and a rare 
good 'un too; and lookee here, lad, 'twas thy feyther 
taught 'ee, and he's proud of 'ee. Bill, he is, for there's 
not a man this side of Lunnun as can beat 'ee now.' 
So, young gemmen, you be come to the right shop to 
larn, only ye'll never turn like old Bill, so ye needn't 
expect it. There's plenty of talk in these here days, and 
no taching. Why, I never had but one prentice, and he 
ran away — he did." 

We had heard of this prentice of Bill's before, and, 



THE 'FRENTJCE. 41 



knowing, as we did, that the ash stick had been considered 
in his case also the only able instructor, we rather 
applauded the lad, who, to avoid a too frequent application 
of it, had " made tracks " out of the village, and was now, 
under a new master, already a very fair hand at the lathe. 
This latter fact, however, old Bill persistently ignored, 
and if we asked him (as we often did), where his old 
apprentice was now, all he would say was, " Ah ! >^e's no 
good ; he should ha' stayed with old Bill, but he run away 
— he did ; he\ no good." We fancied old Bill would have 
preferred teaching us lads in his own way too, for he was 
a grumpy old chap, but the half-crowns and sundry words 
of flattery and praise of his skill kept him in tolerably 
good humour. 

We soon found, however, that the old man became so 
busied in his task, that he actually forgot our presence 
altogether after a few minutes, and was only recalled to 
a sense of our proximity by a sneeze from Tim, who was 
nearest to his elbow, and who was consequently imbibing 
a certain amount of fine dust from a bit of worm-eaten 
beech which was being converted into the rail of a chair 
or stool. 

Being thus made conscious of the fact that two 
lads awaited his instructions, old Bill tossed down the 
now finished rail, settled his spectacles, took a pinch 
of snuff, and then selected a bit of wood, which was 



42 BOV ENGINEERS. 



to be submitted to our tender mercies under his 
directions. 

*' Now, look ye here, young gemmen," said he. 
" You've got to make this rail like the one I've just 
finished, and ye can't do it," he added, as I suppose, by 
way of encouragement I ''Now, first of all, as ye're 
young hands, ye'd better take a gimlet, and bore a hole 
at each end for the lathe-points, 'cause ye'll be sure to 
make the tools catch in ; and then, if the centres aren't 
pretty deep, out comes the bit of wood, and maybe ye 
gets a rap in the face at the same time. Why, lads, I've 
seen a lathe with a strong ash pole overhead fling a bit 
of wood right across the shop and through the window; 
ay ! and I seed one chap knocked over, with his eye 
bunged up for a week after. So, as I said, ye'd better 
bore a hole at each end like this. And now ye see, 
nothing's easier than to put it in the lathe, and screw up 
the points pretty tight ; only, ye see, I just take a turn 
of the cord round it first ; and this cord, mind, is a bit of 
raw horse's hide, nothing but raw hide properly dressed, 
as old Bill knows how, will stand the work. And, 
mind," he continued, " that you give the turn in the 
right direction, so that when you press down the treadle, 
the work shall run towards you, because then you'll get 
into the way of putting the tool forward into cut at 
the very same moment that you press down your foot. 



SFWEHS. 43 

After a bit ye won't need to think about it, but it'll 
all come as nat'ral as spiders catch flies ; and there's a 
pretty many spiders up and about this here shop, and I 
expects they knows old Bill won't hurt 'em, and maybe 
they like the sound of the lathe too, but that's neither 
here nor there, only there's hundreds of 'em under the 
old thatch up there." 

All this time the old man kept running the wood 
backwards and forwards while lightly grasped in his 
right hand, and was evidently relapsing into a state of 
forgetfulness about the proposed lesson. I therefore 
ventured to remark upon the accuracy with which the 
wood was centred, and also to suggest that I supposed 
he always began work with a gouge. "There, therel 
I told ye not to talk," was the answer. '* Gouge, of 
course, before chisel ; but bless ye, lad, ye won't want 
no chisel yet a bit. Here," he added, to my great joy, 
"you catch hold of this here gouge, and let's see what ye 
can do." Taking up the tool at his bidding, and at the 
same time putting my foot on the treadle, I was just 
going to begin, but in a nervous sort of way, when Bill 
roared out, " Not so, lad — not so , that won't do. Grip 
the too] by the handle in the right hand, and seize it 
with the left close to the rest, and hold on like grim 
death. And don't hold it so level " (horizontally), 
" but slope the point upwards. Don't ye see, if you hold 



44 BO Y ENGINEERS. 

it level, all the roug-h parts of the wood, as they come 
against the edge, only hammer it, and, sooner or later, 
knock out a very pretty lot of notches, 'cause, ye see, 'tis 
but thin stuff at best, and good steel is very brittle. 
But if you hold it pointing upwards, the edge will cut the 
chips clean off, as it ought to do." We both saw at once 
that old Bill was right, and that, like most beginners, 
we had held the gouge so that it could only scrape, and 
we now perceived how it had happened that we notched 
and blunted our own tools so frequently. 

With a pole-lathe, we found it impossible to run the 
tool along the rest as the work revolved, although we 
managed this at a later period. For the present^ we had 
to be content with reducing it by a series of separate 
grooves to the required size, running these into one 
another, however, as well as we could afterwards. For 
final smoothing, we had to let Bill himself go over 
it with a chisel, for our attempts to use this tool were 
decided failures. First one point caught in, and then 
the other; and we could (as Bill had forewarned us) do 
nothing with it. Still an hour's steady perseverance was 
not without its effect, and so well pleased was old Bill 
with our determined and zealous attempts to get over our 
difficulties, that before we left, he condescended not only 
again to put the turning chisel into our hands, but to 
give us the following accurate instructions for using it. 



THE CHISEL. 41 



*' You see, lads, the chisel is not like old Bob Chips's 
the carpenter's, but is ground off sloping, so that it has 
one very sharp point and one blunt ; and Chips's is only 
ground from one side, while this is ground on both, so 
that the edge is in the middle of the tool. And, you 
see," he continued, " we grind very long flats or bevels, 
and gets 'em as true and level as we can ; and then, just 
a rub on the stone on both sides, and the tool is ready. 
Then," he continued, " we lays the tool so as to rest 
almost flat against the bit of wood, but at the same time 
keeping the upper point quite clear of it. This, ye see, is 
the secret. The lower point — and ye may put either the 
sharp or the blunt one below — can't catch in, but if ye 
only let the upper one touch the wood, in it goes as sure 
as them spiders eats flies, and then ye ploughs as pretty 
a furrow as old Tom Wurzel ever made in his life, and 
your work is spoilt right off, and most likely the point " 
(or pinty as he called it) " of the chisel is left sticking fast 
in the wood, and then there's a pretty long job at the 
grindstone.*' 

We had now to bid farewell to our instructor, but we 
had really gained a good deal of instruction, which we 
could at our leisure put in practice at our own workshop. 
Indeed, we found that, after clearly understanding the 
principles of the art, and the mode of using the two most 
important tools, we had to encounter comparatively few 



46 BOY ENGINEERS. 



difficulties, and these were due simply to our present 
lack of manual dexterity, which further practice supplied. 
As to our own lathe, we found, in spite of old Bill's 
contempt, that it was practically almost as good a tool as 
his own. We had made it very firm by driving the 
upright timbers into the solid ground, and nailing the 
others to the beams of our workshop. We found, indeed, 
that these timbers of the old shed were of great value to 
us in fixing our bench and shelves and a tail vice, which 
we picked up at an old iron store, and similar workshop 
necessaries; and although we both lived to occupy pre- 
mises of far handsomer and more pretentious appear- 
ance, we never found any workshop more fit for the pur- 
poses of the carpenter and turner than that dear old shed 
at Biampton. A photograph of it, both of its exterior 
and interior, with our primitive lathe and apparatus, 
hangs now in our study. 

From first to last the chisel gave us the most trouble; 
for although, after some practice, we avoided lowering 
the upper point so as to allow it to catch in, we could not 
succeed in giving a perfectly level surface to the work. 
On the whole, we found it easier to work with the 
sharpest angle below ; but old Bill never seemed to care 
much which was uppermost. He would lay the tool flat 
upon the work, and run it along with one hand, and use 
it with equal facility from right to left or the contrary 



MANUAL DEXTERITY. 47 

way. We, however, found that it was more difficult to 
use it running from left to right, and only persevering 
determination to succeed gave us the victory at last. 

When, however, in after years, we were enabled to 
discard the pole-lathe in favour of a better, we found 
ample cause to rejoice that this inefficient machine had 
given us our first lessons in the art, for it had afforded us 
a great deal more practice of the right kind than usually 
falls to the lot of amateurs. The gouge and chisel are 
par excellence the tools of the wood-turner, but their use 
is generally considerably neglected by those who can afford 
expensive lathes fitted with a slide-rest. This article is 
made to serve instead of skilful handling of the more 
ordinary tools, and the gouge proper, with its ally the 
chisel, only appear in the form of short bits of steel 
fitted into a holder, and run to and fro by means of the 
slide-rest screw — an operation which demands no skill on 
the part of the turner, but which renders the surface of 
the work absolutely true. 

Lads who are fond of mechanical work should make 
up their minds not to resort to these by eways of the 
turner's art, but learn to do all that is possible with 
simple tools, and only fall back upon these mechanical 
aids under the pressure of necessity. 

After we had attained what at any rate appeared to 
ourselves a fair amount of skill in turning such small 



48 BOY ENGINEERS. 

pieces as are used by the chair-makers, that is to say, chair 
rails, legs of tables, tool handles, and such-like articles of 
comparatively small diameter, our ambition centred on a 
bread platter. We had not before attempted anything of 
the kind, and we did not see how it would be possible to 
arrange the cord, even if we began by sawing out a piece 
of board, and rounding it off before putting it in the lathe. 
We rather doubted, in fact, whether ou'" friend Bill could 
manage an article of this kind ; but on passing his window 
one day, we saw three platters exposed for sale, besides 
circular stands for tea-urns, lamps, and such-like, and 
also, in addition to these, a stand of rather pretentious 
character, fitted with an inverted bell-glass for an 
aquarium. It was evident, therefore, that articles of this 
nature were within the scope of the pole-lathe. 

We at last told Bill of our dilemma, but the old fellow 
would not help us. All we got for the present by way of 
reply was, " Turn platters in a pole lathe ! o' course ye 
can, if ye know how, and can handle the tools ; old Bill 
turns scores of 'em, but he can turn, he can." 

Determined not to be beat, we set our wits to work 
again, with the following result. We first of all trimmed 
a piece like a large, very large cotton reel, but short in 
proportion to its size. We took care to make it as true as 
possible at each flange or end, where it was about three 
inches in diameter. This we set on one side. We then 



BREAD PLATTER. 49 

cut out with a keyhole saw, for want of a compass saw, a 
round bit of sj'camore previous!)' planed on both sides to 
three-quarters of an inch thick, its diameter in the rough 
being ten inches. We made one mistake in our work, 
which we record for the reader's benefit. In our undue 
haste to get our bit of wood into shape, we cut it out 
before we had planed it. The result was greatly increased 
difficulty in performing the latter operation. It was well 
enough so far as the central line — the parts immediately 
about its diameter — were concerned ; but when we tried 
to plane on each side farther from the centre, the wood 
insisted on revolving the moment the plane began to cut. 
We only succeeded by sawing a wide notch in a bit of 
half-inch board laid against the planing stop, which, by 
embracing, as it did, a good part of the circumference, 
kept the work steady. 

After this experience we avoided the difficulty in future 
by planing the board before cutting out of it the cir- 
cular piece required. 

We had marked out the circle with a large pair of com- 
passes, and from the same centre we marked also a three- 
inch circle. We cow took our big reel, and glued it care- 
fully down upon this part, and further secured it by two 
short screws, which passed through the flange, and reached 
a quarter or three-eighths of an inch into the board, as 

D 



5© BOY ENGINEERS. 

we rightly conjectured that we could easily fill up and 
conceal such holes after the work was finished. 

When the whole was dry, we mounted it in the lathe. 
We found the impetus, however, much greater than we 
had expected, and every time the rotation was checked 
before it commenced in the opposite direction, there was a 
sudden jerk which seemed to threaten to throw the concern 
out of the lathe — probably to the detriment of the turner's 
nose. 

But steady determination will do wonders, and although 
we had not yet ventured to apply a gouge to the work, we 
found that, by turning more slowly, and slightly easing 
the foot at the end of the up and down motion, we could 
in a great measure diminish the impetus and reduce the 
danger. 

The first application of the tool brought the work to a 
standstill, and buried the point of the gouge somewhat 
deeply in the wood. Luckily, however, it did not take 
out a piece of the edge, nor did it remove a chip. We 
now found that it was a very different and far more 
difficult matter to turn an article of this kind than a 
simple bar or tool handle, and that it was necessary to 
place the rest as close to the work as it would go without 
touching It, and to make very slight cuts indeed. We 
also learnt another fact, namely, that it was much harder 
work for the leg, because a bit of wood of large diameter 



LEVERAGE. 51 



represented a lever equal in length to the radius, which, 
as soon as the tool was applied, became a resisting power, 
which we had to overcome. But this fact we had im- 
pressed on our minds more thoroughly after our pole-lathe 
had been replaced by one of the more generally known 
form, in which the work is driven through the medium of 
a fly-wheel. In the pole-lathe, the power of the foot 
acting directly upon the work gives an advantage which 
the other lathes do not possess, and the whole weight of 
the body being thrown, when necessary, upon the treadle, 
gives the turner very great power in causing the work to 
rotate against the tool. There is, of course, the spring of 
the pole to be overcome, but this is not so great as would 
be supposed, and does not add very greatly to the labour. 
When this class of lathe was more general than it is now, 
the pole was sometimes replaced by a bow of lancewood 
or yew, or other elastic wood, which was strung exactly 
like that used by archers, and from the middle of its string 
descended the cord to the treadle. This was, however, 
more general on the Continent than in England ; and in 
an old French work by Plumier, which has become very 
scarce, there are drawings of these lathes, with steel 
spring bows mounted on an upright pedestal fixed to the 
lathe itself ; and the latter was not the clumsy contrivance 
of the old chairmaker, but fitted very cleverly, and 
capable of being applied to the general purposes of the 



52 BOY ENGINEERS. 



watch and clock maker, and to that of the general 
turner. 

The pale-lathe is certainly becoming a thing of the 
past, being mostly superseded by its more elegant and more 
serviceable brother, but it is still employed by preference for 
certain purposes. In the soft-wood districts, where wooden 
spoons are made, it still has a place in the workshop ; and 
I was told by a turner that it is preferred on account of the 
ease and rapidity with which such work can be mounted — 
no chuck being needed. Nevertheless, I have seen a steam- 
power lathe of the usual construction used for a similar pur- 
pose ; and although the mandrel must have revolved two 
thousand times in a minute, I saw a lad mount his work, 
and remove it when finished, without even stopping the 
lathe. Moreover, I am inclined to think that even 
old cantankerous Bill Birch, if he had seen the dexterity 
with which the lad in question used gouge and chisel, 
would have been obliged to confess that one other person 
besides himself could turn. 

It is not necessary to tell the reader all the further 
particulars of our work on that wondrous specimen of the 
turner's art, the bread platter. We succeeded, by 
careful manipulation, in bevelling ofi" the edge and pro- 
ducing something like a decent moulding round it ; and 
by dint of tolerably free application of glass paper, we 
put a sufficient finish upon it to satisfy our youthful 



PLEASURABLE STUDIES. 53 

aspirations. To detach the reel from the back, and, by a 
little rubbing with a tool handle, erase the marks of the 
screws, and clear off all trace of the glue, was not a very 
difficult or prolonged task, and we then determined to go 
over to old Bill the following Saturday, and to submit to 
his critical eye this specimen of his pupils' handiwork. 

To obtain permission to do this was not a matter of 
difficulty. We never abused the liberty which the Doctor 
gave us, and therefore it was extended to us freely at 
all times, when it did not interfere with the school-work, 
to which we continued to apply ourselves as steadily as 
we could. In fact, we considered it a point of honour to 
study hard, and it soon grew into a real pleasure. Our 
mathematical work especially gave us an interest which 
we did not feel equally in the classical, as it enabled us 
to understand, to a great extent, the principles of 
machinery as well as of mechanical work, and we were 
often pleasantly surprised to find that we were but 
carrying out in the workshop principles which we had 
been learning in our school hours, and that the more 
closely we studied these principles, and the more 
carefully we worked out the problems given us, the 
more clearly we understood the why and wherefore of 
many details of practical mechanics. It was thus we were 
led to perceive the reason that works of large diameter 
required more labour than those of a smaller size » that 



54 BOY ENGINEERS. 

the latter gained less impetus as it revolved, and that its 
motion could he suddenly arrested without much diffi- 
culty, and without producing any great shock ; that the 
smaller the work, the greater might be the rapidity 
cf rotation ; and why, on one memorable occasion, so 
severe a blow was given by a piece of wood which 
suddenly escaped from the lathe-centres when at full 
speed. These mechanical laws, as we gained more and 
more sound information respecting them, interested us 
very deeply, and gave great zest to our self-imposed 
labours. 

When we presented ourselves at Bill's workshop, 
platter in hand, we saw a shade of disappointment over- 
spread his features. Pushing up his spectacles into the 
roots of his hair, he deliberately and closely examined our 
work ; then pulling down the glasses again, and settling 
them comfortably on his nose, he laid down the platter 
on the lathe-bed and resumed his work. We could not 
help feeling highly amused at his evident perplexity. 
He did not expect, nor intend us to succeed, without 
receiving a special lesson, and for this lesson he had 
reckoned on another coin out of our pockets. For Bill 
was a grasping, close-fisted, and churlish old fellow as 
ever held a gouge, envious of his fellow-craftsmen, 
whose work he delighted to depreciate, and a regular 
tyrant in his own house. But no equally clever hand 



BILLS CRITICISM. 55 



was within our reach, the nearest craftsman living out 
beyond St. Ives. We knew that we shoukl best 
propitiate Bill by depreciating our performance, and 
expressing our regret that he had not been at our elbow 
when we were at work. Tim was a greater favourite than 
I was, being a better hand at this sort of (perhaps 
pardonable) humbug; he therefore commenced the 
assault. 

** I wish we could turn like you. Bill,'* said he. " I 
thought we should never get through this job, and I dare 
say you could have done it in five minutes, and somehow, 
now it is done, the platter doesn't look like a work- 
man's. Any one could tell it was a boy's work, eh, 
Bill?" 

'* Boy's work I " answered Bill, " tisn't work at all ; 
you might cut out a better one with a pocket-knife." 

We knew that was an exaggeration, but said nothing; 
and Bill resumed. 

*' Look here now — where's all the sharp, clean-cut 
work ye see in Bill's platters ? This here one isn't cut 
at all ; 'tis just muddled and rubbed into shape with sand- 
paper; and this here edge you calls a moulding ain't no 
sort of form. All that is tidy about it is the planed 
part, and that is half spoilt too by the sandpaper." 

Then Bill began another bit of work, and was silent 
till he had finished it, which took him about three 



56 BOY ENGINEERS. 



minutes, after which he suddenly asked, " How did ye 
doit?" 

We knew now that the ice was thawed, and began to 
enter into a detailed account of how we had made the 
big reel, and glued it on for the cord to work upon, and 
what difficulties we found in turning up the edge, not 
omitting to repeat the fact of our regret at not having had 
Bill's assistance. 

Thus further mollified, the old fellow condescended to 
converse more freely, especially when Tim pulled out a 
packet of snuff, of which Bill was insatiably fond, and 
presented it to him. I can't say, however, that he evinced 
any gratitude for the present — he never did — nor do I 
think there was a spark of gratitude ever present under 
that gaudy but faded old waistcoat, which had been bought 
cheap at a pawnbroker's. The snuflT, however, had an 
efiect, as we soon perceived. Taking out of a cupboard 
near the lathe a bit of wood cut out with a sweep saw 
and nicely planed. Bill proceeded to mount it in the lathe. 
For this purpose, however, he did not glue on a bobbin, 
as we had done, but produced two pieces made thus : — 
One was like our big reel, only one flange was much 
larger than the other — about six inches diameter, the reel 
itself between the flanges being about three ; and from 
the larger face projected near its outer edge four sharp 
but short spikes, being the points of screws driven from 



OLD B ILL'S WORK. 57 

behind, and afterwards sharpened with a file. The other 
bit was merely a round flat piece, also having spikes pro- 
jecting on one side, and on the opposite side of each was 
a central hole to receive the lathe-point. 

The platter was pinched between these, which were 
placed on each side accurately by a circle drawn on the 
wood with compasses, as we had done. Thus, without 
glueing, these bits of wood served to turn from three to 
half-a-dozen platters, after which the holes for the centre- 
points of the lathe became, Bill told us, too much worn 
to hold the work safely, and the pieces were replaced by 
new ones. Besides sycamore. Bill used, as we found, 
willow, plane, and beech, and indeed any tolerably soft 
wood of even and close grain, any wood not naturally prone 
to splinter and chip easily. He turned the moulding at 
the edge chiefly with the gouge, but afterwards, with the 
sharpest corner of the chisel, he cut out a shallow angular 
grove, which gave a finish to the work by making a well- 
defined edge to the moulding. He afterwards showed us 
a very useful tool for this and similar purposes, viz., a 
V tool, which was similar to a gouge, except that instead 
of being round like the half of a tube, it was like a bit of 
paper folded sharply lengthwise. It was then ground 
from the outside, and made very keen upon the oil-stone. 
This tool, we were also graciously informed, was used for 
cutting screws in soft wood, an art requiring much practice, 



58 BOY ENGINEERS. 

but which Bill did very well in his old lathe by dint of 
bringing down the treadle very slowly and following a 
pencil-line carefully drawn beforehand. This he rightly con- 
sidered rather a feat, as few turners could do this, or make 
Elizabethan twist, or roped-work, as it was called, for 
which we received instructions at a much later date, 
which will be recorded for the reader's benefit. As to 
sand or glass paper, Bill warned us never if possible to 
use it, but to use sharp tools, and use them in a workman- 
like manner, because abrasive materials always rubbed off 
the sharp edges of the work, and gave it a very poor, 
'prentice-like appearance. But if at any time such means 
were absolutely necessary, he told us always to take up 
a very sharp chisel or V tool, and make a final cut after 
the sandpapering, to restore the sharp edges which the 
paper had obliterated. 

Before our acquaintance with this queer old fellow 
commenced, we had read about the chairmaker's pole- 
lathe, but never could have believed the extent of its 
capabilities in the hands of a good workman. This is 
practically the lathe which serves the purpose of the 
watchmaker, who, with a bow of whalebone strung with 
a horse-hair, and a graver or other tool held in one hand, 
turns up the pivots and small wheels upon which he has 
to exercise his skill. There is, indeed, one advantage 
in a bow-lathe, viz., its comparative portability. On a 



OUR BOW-LATHE. 59 

Bmall scale it may be made, and is made, to clamp iu a 
vice or to screw to a table; and may be made either to 
work with a bow held in the hand, or, by the addition of 
an upright pedestal to hold a bow overhead, it may be 
arranged to work through the medium of a treadle. We 
made such a lathe iu after years, taking a hint from 
an old French work, and give a sketch of it here, as we 
used it for many light jobs with very satisfactory results. 
It is pretty much like the Swiss turn, or turn bench, 
but we made certain additions and alterations which we 
believed to be improvements. In the first place, the flat 
bar of iron, B, on which the rest of the lathe is fitted, was 
made thick, and flattened out at one end, M, so that it 
could be arranged as a clamp ; and the jaws of this were 
outward, so that if clamped to a table on the right-hand 
corner, the bar t» ould btaiid clear, so as to allow the co. ^ 
also to pass down free of the table to a light treadle, a 
mere strip of board three inches wide. The poppit on the 
left of the bar was fixed by a couple of screws, the other, 
which was free to slide on the bar, was clamped by the 
screw seen below it, as was also the rest-socket, C, into 
which the upper part, L, fitted, the same screw clamp- 
ing both. Q R S is the support of the bow N, and 
this we made of hollow iron tubing, in pieces fitted 
together where the lines are seen across it, so that it 
could be taken to pieces for the sake of portabiliij. As 



6o 



BO V ENGINEERS. 




M 




A r 



CD 




^^n 



CD 



T 



Fig. 4. — Our Bow-Latlie. 




OUR BOW- LATHE. 6i 

we could not manage to fit these with screwed joints, we 
fitted into every other piece a turned bit of wood, which waa 
tightly driven into the tube, but about two inches of which 
was left standing outside. This, which was turned very 
slightly smaller, fitted the other bits of tube, so that the 
whole fitted together like the joints of a fishing-rod, and 
were very stifi" and firm. Over the horizontal rod 0, we 
made a sliding piece of hard wood to clamp with a screw, 
and the bow fitted a mortice in the lower part of it, and 
was then wedged in so as not to slip. At M there was 
a flattened bit of solid iron screwed to the bar, the top 
being filed round for the first joint of the tube to slip 
over it. The central turned spindles, AA, which fitted 
into the poppits, were pointed at one end, and had conical 
centre holes at the other, and either or both could be 
turned end for end at pleasure. The mortice in C, 
through which the bar B passes, was made higher than 
those in the poppits, so that it fitted loosely on the 
upper and lower edges of the bar, but closely on its 
sides. Thus the screw below could draw it down nearly 
half an inch, and when the foot of the rest, L, was put 
through the other mortice, it was easily fixed by the 
screw in any desired position. 

The poppit, K, and its fittings composed our boring 
collar, which was necessary to hold one end of any bar 
which required to be hollowed out or bored. The poppit 



62 BOY ENGINEERS. 



fitted on the bar exactly like tlie other two, cue of which 
it replaced at pleasure. K was of hard wood, made to fit 
in a mortice aud clamp with a screw, with conical holes 
in it nicely bored. The exact centres of these we marked 
by running this poppit close to the other, and giving 
a slight tap to the centre-point so as to mark it. 

T is one of the chucks already described in speaking 
of the large lathe. Auy round flat bit of work was held 
either by being pressed on the points, aud kept against 
them by the back spindle, or pinched between two such 
chucks, in which case, the centre-point came against the 
back of the second chuck instead of against the work 
itself. W is one of another set of chucks — spindles for 
holding washers, small wheels, rings, and other such 
articles ; the pullies were made to drive on tightly, the 
spindles or arbors being slightly conical. Some of the 
pullies were like that shown for a hand-bow of whalebone, 
and fine gut or hair ; others like a cotton reel, which, in 
fact, we actually used for the cord from the overhead. 
These arbors were all of steel drilled at each end, so as 
to run truly on the points of the spindles. We had them 
from the size of a small knitting-needle to that of a 
cedar pencil ; but for still larger work we used to make 
them of boxwood, which answered very well. We had 
various other contrivances for special work, which, how- 
ever, need not be detailed here, as some of our many 



OUR BOW-LATHE. 63 

'* dodges " will probably be described on a future page, 
when speaking of our amateur engineering, and the 
better lathe which we afterwards obtained. This last, 
nevertheless, did not displace the one here described, which 
always kept its place in our workshoj , and often proved 
even the more serviceable of the two for certain kinds of 
work. 




Chapter III. 



WORKSHOP APPLIANCES. 




HIS chapter will be devoted to a description 
of other of our workshop appliances, of which 
many were home-made, and answered so well, 
that we never found it necessary to provide 
more expensive appliances from the tool shops. First 
there was our drilling apparatus. We had so often seen 
the village blacksmith at work, with his old-fashioned 
crank drill and press frame, that we thought we could 
hardly do better than adopt it in a modified form — i.e., 
we did away with a certain heavy and clumsy contrivance 
overhead — a long beam hinged at one end and fitted with 
a weight at the other. We replaced this afiair by a frame 
of wood, as we had not then funds for much iron-work, 



OUR DRILLING MACHINE. 



65 



and after we had funds we used this drilling bench for 
years. It consisted, first of all, of a strong stool, which, 
with the rest, we have only shown in profile and section, 




Fig. 5. — Our Drilling Machine. 

to make the construction more clear. The bench and 
cross piece above were of ash, as we considered that upon 

E 



66 BOY ENGINEERS. 

these the strain would come ; but the uprights were of 
deal, because the tendency would only be to stretch these 
lengthwise. They were mortised into the beuch and 
cross piece, and pinned through the latter with oak ping 
or trenails, but under the bench they were fastened by 
wedges, which could be knocked out and the whole frame 
removed, leaving the stool free for sawing or any other 
purposes. The lower mortises were strapped with hoop 
iron, to prevent any chance of their being split out by 
the wedges. The stool was two feet long and ten inches 
wide. The uprights three inches wide by two thick, the 
widest sides in and out, and the top four inches by two, 
the broad surfaces above and below — so that, as seen in 
the drawing, the edges of these parts are shown. The 
feeding screw was picked up at an old iron store, and 
the blacksmith fitted to it a nut which we let in flush in 
the upper bar, putting a plate on below to keep it in 
place. As the strain was in the contrary direction, this 
did not need to be specially strong, and four three-quarter 
screws held it very well. We could thus oil the nut at 
any time by taking oflf the plate. The brace we of 
course bought, as well as the drills, but we afterwards 
learned to make the latter ourselves, to our great advan- 
tage. To hold the work to be drilled, we used all sorts 
of di£Ferent contrivances — blocks of wood sometimes on 
each side of it, wedged up ; iron bolts and clamps through 



OUR DRILLING MACHINE. 67 



the bench, with nuts underneath, and various extempore 
arrangements. We also made mortises in our vice 
bench, and could mount the same frame over this when 
we pleased, so that work which we found it impossible 
to secure upon the drilling-bench, could be held in the 
tail vice itself. Altogether, we never had a more service- 
able tool in our workshop than this rough-and-ready 
affair, which was often put to somewhat unfair tests 
when we had to drill larger holes than usual. 

To set the drills upright for work, we used a plumb- 
line in two directions, standing a little way off, and hold- 
ing the line between the eye and the drill, and shifting 
the work until the drill was truly vertical in both direc- 
tions. All we then had to do was to work away at the 
crank, and feed with the screw, and the drill would 
descend perfectly true, and bore very rapidly. I think we 
gave ten shillings for the brace with six drills, the screw 
and its nut, and the raw material of which the bench and 
side pieces were made. The screw I believe was an iron 
bench screw, of which probably the nut had been lost, and 
thus it had found its way first to the scrap heap, and 
then to the rag, bone, and old iron merchant, who had dis- 
posed of his donkey-load to the keeper of a marine store. 
It would be curious to trace the history of such a screw 
through the various phases of its existence, until at last it 
returns to the melting-pot from which it originally came. 



68 BOY ENGINEERS. 



I think if a thing of this sort could write its experiences, 
and describe the scenes it had witnessed, the homes it 
had visited, and the characters it had met, the result 
would be such a book for boys as I shall never write as 
long as 1 live. Our old screw, however, was silent 
(unless it wanted oil, and then it sang loudly, or wailed 
sadly), and if " it could a tale unfold," it never did so. 

For a long time we were very badly set up in screwing 
apparatus. This was an expensive item, and the most we 
could do was to possess ourselves of a screw-plate with 
double handle, and three or four holes, and a smaller one 
of clock-size with eight. The taps were few and bad, but 
we found means to increase these from the plates them- 
selves, and though not of first-class pattern — not being 
grooved, but merely squared up — they did pretty good 
work, good enough for most of our early engineering 
requirements. One or two holes of the plate were indeed 
useless, from having been used upon very hard steel, which 
had worn down the threads, but we could cut screws from 
about three-eighths down to one-sixteenth very well. 

Our great ambition was, however, to become possessors 
of a stock and dies, and we searched catalogues, and 
advertisements, and sale bills over and over again, but 
could meet with nothing suited to our finances ; and not 
till we had made a good many steps in advance of our 
early trials at engineering did we succeed in obtaining this 



CONSUL TA TIONS. 69 



most desirable screwing apparatus. It came, nevertheless, 
in due time, like many other tools and workshop appliances, 
and, perhaps, on the whole, it was well that we did not 
possess a stock earlier in our career, for our inexperience 
would in all probability have caused its destruction. 

With the few appliances alluded to, in addition to files 
and such-like, we worked steadily at all kinds of 
mechanical jobs for two or three years, and by this time 
we had grown from little boys into big ones, and both 
brain and hand began to yearn after somewhat better 
tools, and work of a higher quality. We began to find 
our lathe especially unfit for real engineering operations 
in metal, although sufficient for occasional work ; and we 
determined, after due consideration, to replace it by one 
with a fly-wheel and treadle, mandrel and chucks. 

How we talked over this work ! and how many plans 
we drew before we decided upon the best ways and 
means. The bed was to be wood, of necessity ; but 
we determined upon having beech very carefully planed 
with an iron plate on the upper surface, put on with 
countersunk screws, and filed up as true as we could 
succeed in making it. It was to be six feet long, 
because, although we noticed that a great number of 
lathes were made with four-feet beds, we considered that 
it would be as easy to make one two feet longer, and 
that it would be much better for wood-turning, in whi«b 



70 £0V ENGINEERS. 

the work is often of some length. The standards to 
support this bed we also determined should be made of 
beech, and the fly-wheel quite plain, not grooved for gut, 
but suitable for a strap, because we found this could be 
easily met with at an iron store, foundry, or machine 
shop, secondhand, whereas a bevelled and grooved one 
could only be had at a lathe-maker's. 

We knew, however, that this would not give us the 
slow speed necessary for metal turning, but we thought 
we could easily turn a small pulley or drum of wood 
with a hole for the axle, and that we could attach it also 
by a couple of screws to the spokes of the fly-wheel, to 
secure it from slipping round upon the axle. This we 
subsequently made, and very well it answered. The 
main difficulty, we felt, would be the mandrel and its 
fittings, and the back poppit ; in short, the upper works 
of the lathe. 

In the midst of our deliberations, and when wooden 
poppits and very inefficient substitutes for mandrel and 
collar were determined on, a kind friend who heard of 
our dilemma, and was charitable enough to appreciate our 
various attempts to make our own apparatus, brought us 
an old rusty mandrel fourteen inches long, with a worm- 
eaten pulley and some half dozen short lengths of screw 
threads cut upon it. Eagerly we accepted such a prize. 
It was apparently from some rejected and disused brass- 



A VALUABLE PRESENT. 71 

turner's shop, for there was a bit of brass rod broken short 
off inside the female screw intended for the chucks. The 
first operation was to clean it, which we commenced by 
boiling water and soda, with a very hard scrubbing brush 
and sand. This soon got rid of a thick mass of old har- 
dened oil and dirt, and enabled us to see something of 
the bright but tarnished metal below. Testing the latter 
with a file, we found that it had been hardened at each 
end, and was a promising concern. In fact, the only 
really bad part about it was, that one set of guide 
threads for screw cutting was damaged, but not so as to 
have become absolutely useless. There was one point, 
however, which we regarded as a drawback, and this was 
the length of the mandrel, which would have the effect of 
shortening the bed ; we therefore added a foot to the 
latter in our plans, determining to make it seven feet 
instead of six. The pulley was wholly gone, but it was 
now a very easy matter to replace it, as we were quite 
used to the pole-lathe. We began by roughly sawing 
out a round piece of beech. We then drove it tightly 
upon the mandrel, mounted this in the lathe, and turned 
up the wood. It therefore proved (as we foresaw) 
absolutely true, and being intended for a strap, we 
merely turned it slightly large in the middle, rounding it 
off each way. I forget who put us up to this now well- 
known secret of turning pulleys to receive straps ; for I 



72 BOY ENGINEERS, 



remember that it was at that time customary to turn 
them with a rim on each side to keep the strap from slipping 
off, the result being that the said strap generally found 
its way up on the rim, and insisted on riding partly there 
instead of on the flat surface. It was, however, dis- 
covered by some observant mechanic, that if a strap were 
made to run upon a conical surface, its tendency was to 
run up towards the largest part, instead of slipping down 
in the other direction, as would be expected. If, there- 
fore, two short cones were placed base to base, i.e.^ with 
their large ends together, the strap would evidently keep 
on and retain its place in the middle of such pulley. 
This is the form now universally adopted, except that 
the sharp edge at the meeting of the cones is always 
rounded off considerably, the pulley being simply larger 
in the middle than at the other parts. This will be 
evident from the sketch given of our renovated lathe in 
fig. 6. The screw guides cut on the mandrel are seen 
at CCC ; being of a different pitch, one had eight threads 
to an inch, the next twelve, and the third sixteen. 
There had been one of twenty, but it was so damaged as 
to be useless, and these three pitches sufficed for our need. 
At A is seen a block of mahogany screwed to the bottom 
of the poppit, and having three vertical mortises and three 
horizontal ones opening into the others. In the vertical 
ones were three squared plugs of wood, and in the 



OUR RENOVATED LATHE. 



11 



horizontal ones were wedges which, being driven in, 
raised the plugs until their upper surfaces touched, and 
pressed against the guide screws sufficiently to he deeply- 
indented by them. Thus, if the mandrel wa,s free to 
revolve, and also to move along horizontallj'' in its 
bearings, and one of these plugs was made to press 




Fig. 6. — Our Renovated Lathe. 

against its screw, the mandrel would of necessity 
traverse end-wise at the same rate as the pitch of that 
particular guide screw. Hence, this is called a traversing 
mandrel, and a screw to match any one of the guides is 
easily cut upon wood or metal by merely holding a point 
tool or a chasing tool of the right pitch quite still upon 
the rest. The traverse is from left to right, the man- 
drel advancing in that direction in its collar, so as to 
make the screw a right-handed one. The mandrel 
is quite cylindrical at DD, where it passes through its 
collars. 



74 BO V ENGINEERS. 

Another wedge may be noticed at H. in the left-hand 
standard of the mandrel head. This was fitted to raise a 
slip of steel, so as to make it enter a shallow groove 
turned in the mandrel at that point, which then prevented 
its traverse. This was used when the lathe was not 
required for screw-cutting ; a shoulder in front, just 
behind the screw on the nose of the mandrel, prevented 
it from running back in its bearings, and took the 
pressure of the screw in the other or back poppit. This 
latter was merely cut out of a bit of sound beech, and 
carefully bored to receive a pointed screw. It was not 
very handsome, perhaps, but answered its intended 
purpose, and we improved the general appearance of the 
poppits by rendering them as smooth as possible, and 
giving them a couple of coats of good black paint. We 
took a great deal of trouble to rig up our French man- 
drel, and spent on it a vast amount of patience, which 
was on the whole well rewarded. The stand, with 
crank treadle and fly-wheel, are omitted in the drawing, 
as the main object of the latter is to show the general 
arrangement of the traversing gear and its fittings. 
These French mandrels are not often met with now, but 
very similar ones may be found in the shops of some soft- 
wood turner's, as they are far cheaper to fit up, and 
quite as efi'ective in use as the more neat and costly ones 
generally found in modern amateur's lathes. The long 



LATHE FITTINGS. 75 

mandrel is, moreover, an element of steadiness, and is not 
without some peculiar advantages. 

I must now give an account of some of our lathe 
fittings, without which we could not have made any 
practical use of it. We intended, if possible, to turn 
articles of brass as well as of wood ; but for the small and 
light articles likely to be undertaken by us, we rightly 
imagined that wooden chucks would suffice, if made 
with iron ferrules to prevent splitting. One chuck, how- 
ever, we found it possible to obtain in metal, viz., a taper 
screw fitted into the centre of a brass plate, which only 
needed to be attached to a wooden base by four ordinary 
wood screws. We procured two of these, one with a 
large and the other with a small centre screw. In order 
to mount these properly, it was necessary to cut an 
internal screw in the blocks to which they were to be 
attached, of the same thread as the mandrel, viz., 
eight to the inch, the same pitch as the coarsest of the 
guide screws. To accomplish this, it was, of course, 
necessary to mount the block on the mandrel with the 
hole to be screwed outward. We therefore sawed off 
a piece of dry beech about an inch longer than would be 
required for the chuck, and bored it with a centre-bit 
at one end, so that the mandrel screw would almost enter 
it. AVe then forcibly screwed it on, allowing the mandrel 
ecrew to cut its own thread. This it did sufficiently well 



76 BOY ENGINEERS. 

to secure the work, and euable us to turn it, and 
accurately square up the end. This end we now bored 
as it ran in the lathe, making the hole the exact size of 
the smallest part of the mandrel screw {i.e.^ its size 
between the threads, which we had previously ascertained 
by measuring it with callipers). We now had to cut the 
inside screw, our first attempt with the new mandrel. 

We had been advised to procure a small set of chasing 
tools, which, in point of fact we had learnt to use fairly 
well, even with the pole-lathe, and we had a pair of the 
pitch required. But we had as yet no experience of a 
traversing mandrel. Holding the tool across the rest, 
which we turned round so as to stand across the end of 
the work, we freed the mandrel to allow it to traverse, 
and drove in the wedge, so that the small block above it 
geared with the screw above it. We then found that by 
giving the crank a half turn to and fro, the mandrel 
advanced steadily as required, and traversed backwards 
and forwards evenly. But at first we found that the 
rest was placed too near, so that the work touched it 
every time it advanced. This was easy to remedy, but 
we also found that the moment the points of the inside 
screw tool touched the work, the tool itself was carried 
forward instead of cutting a thread. We had, however, 
as yet no slide-rest to hold the tool, and had to contrive 
a temporary apparatus to suit our present purpose. We 



TOOL HOLDER. 7) 



saw that it would be necessary to have some means of 
shifting the tool somewhat towards the left hand as the 
cuts deepened, but otherwise it must be motionless ; to 
do this effectually would need some kind of slide, but, 
considering that the depth of the screw-thread was at 
most but one-eighth of an inch, and that this was conse- 
quently the full amount of traverse necessary for the 
tool, a slide seemed hardly requisite, especially as screw- 
cutting would not, in all probability, be a very frequent 
occurrence. Moreover, we soon found it unnecessar) 
even to provide for a traverse of the tool of this amount, 
because as soon as a thread was fairly traced, we dis- 
covered that it was better to stop the traverse of the 
mandrel and finish it by hand, the thread already cut 
suflScing to draw the tool forward at the proper rate. 
After divers sketches and suggestions of a more or 
less complicated character, we cut out a block of ash with 
a stem to fit into the socket of the ordinary rest, and cut 
a groove lengthwise, forming a narrow channel in which 
to lay the tool, but which was wide enough to allow it 
a little movement sideways. In this we laid the chaser, 
and found that we could very easily steady it by grasping 
the rest and the tool together, and after a little practice 
we managed to cut our screws very easily. 

This first attempt was a little less satisfactory than 
subsequent ones, but was sufficiently well done to serve 



78 BOY ENGINEERS. 



the required purpose. We did not cut the threads to 
quite their full depth, and then by screwing the block 
forcibly on the mandrel, after rubbing a little soap upon 
it, we finished it to an excellent fit, as this process com- 
pressed the wood and made the screw threads smooth and 
polished. When cutting screws in this way in boxwood, 
we did not find it necessary, however, to resort to this 
mode of finishing them, as that wood being very hard 
and compact, will allow a screw to be chased at a slow 
speed, but woods like beech or ash, that require to be cut 
at great speed in order to produce a smooth surface with 
the tools, cannot be thus screwed in an equally satisfactory 
manner, but are left by the tool in a comparatively rough 
state. Screws can only be well cut in these by what are 
called V tools, which cannot be always procured except at 
the London tool shops. They are in form like a folded slip 
of paper, and are made exceeding sharp on both edges. 

We had made out of a piece of dry and sound box- 
wood an exact copy of the nose of our mandrel, so that 
we could at any time test the accuracy of our chucks by 
screwing this into them without the necessity of removing 
them from the mandrel ; and as I may be addressing 
young mechanics, let me tell them by all means to follow 
our example, as the convenience is very great. 

Having finished the screw and found it correct, we 
cot off the wood with a parting t^ool to insure its being 



CHUCKS. 79 

perfectly true, and then, screwing it on the mandrel as 
already described, still farther finished it with a chisel. 
We also recessed the end, so as to allow the brass plate to 
fit in flush and to be held centrally without shifting, 
while being secured by three-quarter inch screws. As 
we had taken extreme care to level the bottom of the 
recess, we found that when all the screws were in place 
and the chuck finished, its pointed taper screw was per- 
fectly true with the back centre. 

Both the taper screws having been fitted in the same 
way, they were now used as chucks to hold other pieces 
requiring a similar process of boring and screwing to make 
cup-chucks. Some of these we made of boxwood, because 
the screws were more likely to remain for some time true, 
but as we soon found that the very hardness of this wood 
prevented it from gripping work as securely as other more 
elastic woods, we made other chucks of beech, ash, and 
hornbeam, the latter wood proving excellently suited for 
such work. 

The wooden chucks, intended to be hollowed out to 
receive any object to be turned, were very simple 
aflfairs, merely blocks of wood bored out and screwed to 
fit the mandrel, turned on the outside, and fitted with an 
iron or brass ring, so that they could not be easily split 
by driving the work into them. Some of these rings 
were forged by the blacksmith — others were bits of stout 



8o £0V ENGINEERS. 

tube. In short, whenever we came across a bit of metal 
likely to prove serviceable, we made a prize of it, and put 
it by for future service. For ferrules for our tool handles 
we got bits of gaspipe or old gun barrel, which we cut off 
with a hack-saw, and turned up bright after they were in 
place on their respective handles. 

Our lathe was now in fair condition for use, and we 
only needed to add to the stock of apparatus from time to 
time as it might be needed. After the experience we had 
necessarily gained iu fitting up this lathe and the previous 
one, we felt it very unlikely that we should meet with 
difficulties of an insurmountable character in the amateur 
engineering work which we proposed to carry on. We 
had, in fact, learnt to make light of difficulties, and had 
gained a habit of perseverance and ingenuity in devising 
makeshifts to meet casual emergencies which ever after 
served us in good stead. If we had not precisely the tool 
or the apparatus required, we contrived to make something 
else serve instead, and thus, while we saved money we 
avoided any useless accumulation of tools. 

The list of turning tools in our possession, all neatly 
handled and ranged, in a tool-rack by the lathe, was as 
follows : — 

Two gouges. 
Two chisels. 



TOOLS. 8 1 

Three pairs of screw or chasing tools. 

One point tool for brass. 

One round-end ditto. 

One heel tool for roughing down iron. 

Two gravers. 

One flat or planishing tool for brass. 

Two side tools for brass. 

Six variously-shaped tools for hard wood. 

A pair of in-and-out callipers. 

A pair of compasses. 

The drills used in the carpenter's and smith's braces we 
used also in the lathe, having made a boxwood chuck 
with a square hole in the centre to receive them. The 
back poppet, however, of our lathe was not a very good 
form for advancing any work against the drills, but we 
made it answer fairly well by turning a thimble or flange 
to slip over the point, sufficiently loose not to revolve 
with the screw, but fitting it closely enough not to shake 
about when in use. This, being made flat and true, 
presented a broad surface against which the work could 
abut, and by which it could be gradually and steadily 
advanced. 

We subsequently managed to pick up secondhand 
a far better poppet of iron with a cylinder and leading 



82 BOY ENGINEERS. 

screw, such as is used in all the better-class lathes of the 
present day, but this was not obtained for three years 
alter we had fitted up the one described. 

I must now describe some of the work which we 
managed to produce with the above tools. 




Chapter IV. 



OUR WOODEN CLOCK. 




BOUT this time we had come into possession of 
some odd books on mechanical subjects, in one 
of which Avas a description of a curious German 
clock, in which a wretched individual was 
decapitated every two or three minutes, his head being 
on each occasion deposited in a plate held by the execu- 
tioner's assistant. No doubt it was meant to represent 
the decapitation of John the Baptist, as there was a painting 
above it of a sacred character, but very roughly executed, 
and (as was stated in the description) partly obliterated in 
the original. The beheading of the figure was done in a 
manner short, sharp, and decisive, at the end of the 
allotted time, but the head gradually went back at each 



84 £0 Y ENGINEERS. 



tick of the clock until it rested on the neck of the con- 
(femneil victim, where it remained until the time came 
for its next removal. The description of this old clock 
excited our ambition to reproduce it, and after much 
calculation and much sketching of the various details, 
which culminated in what we were pleased to call " a 
working drawing," we began our work with great zeal, 
and after a good deal of labour and some partial failures, 
we actually accomplished it, and even added other 
mechanism to the original design. Our chief difficulty 
arose from the fact that no description was given of 
the details of the machinery, nor did we know much about 
clocks at that time. We had consequently to read up our 
subject from the commencement, making notes as we pro- 
ceeded of the principles involved. These notes I append 
here to show other boys our methodical way of learning 
our new trade of clockmaking. 

PRINCIPLES OF CLOCKS. 

1. The main consideration is the pendulum, which is, 
in fact, the actual timekeeper, the spring or weight and 
the wheels being necessary only for the purpose of record- 
ing the number of beats made by the pendulum, and for 
keeping it in motion. 

2. The number of beats made by a pendulum in a 
given period depends entirely upon its length. If a 



OUR WOODEN CLOCK. 85 

weight is hung on the end of a string, and is made to 
oscillate from side to side, these oscillations will occur at 
equal periods, whether the arc described by the swinging 
weight be large or small, for any given length of string. 

But this is only precisely true up to a certain point for 
a pendulum or suspended weight, because the arc which 
it describes is a part of a circle of which the point of 
suspension is the centre, and the arc of which the above 
rule of oscillation is always true is not part of a circle 
but of a cycloid. The difference, however, between the 
arcs, for the short distance of the swing of a pendulum, is 
so small, that it may be considered that a pendulum of 
a given length does actually perform its oscillation in 
equal times. 

To impress facts like the above on our minds, we always 
resorted to practical experiments, especially in any case 
where a mechanical law appeared incomprehensible. In 
this case, for instance, we fancied that the pendulum must 
of necessity take longer to traverse a large arc than a 
small one ; but after hanging a weight to a rail by a piece 
of string, and timing its oscillations, we saw at once that, 
when first started on a large arc, the impetus carried it 
forward rapidly past the lowest point and up the opposite 
hill, and that this impetus became less and less as the arc 
of oscillation grew smaller, so that the weight took as 
long to traverse from side to side a couple of inches or 



86 BOY ENGINEERS. 

less as it had taken at first to accomplish its longer 
journey. 

While watching the swinging of our string pendulum, 
it so chanced that one of us began to whistle a tune, and 
we noticed how beautifully our apparatus answered as a 
timekeeper. We had but to shorten it to make it beat 
quick time, or lengthen it for a slow march. We thus 
unconsciously invented the tape and weight now often 
used to teach music in schools ; the tape being marked at 
varying intervals, at which it is to be held in the finger 
and thumb, and the oscillation of the weight marking 
time accordingly. We did not, however, attach any 
great value to our discovery, because, being but boys, we 
concluded that others besides ourselves, and of maturer 
years, must necessarily be well acquainted with a fact so 
apparently simple, and so easy of practical application. 
In this way, no doubt, many inventions are lost from time 
to time, and we have since learned never to take the 
knowledge of mankind for granted, but to make notes of 
every fact we may chance to discover for ourselves, and to 
add suggestions of any possible application of it which 
may from time to time occur to our minds. 

We found, in short, that this habit of observing and 
noting simple facts had resulted in some of the most 
important discoveries and inventions ever made, including 
the steam-engine and electric telegraph, and that not only 



OUR WOODEN CLOCK. 87 

had our greatest engineers been invariably accurate 
observers of natural facts, but also unwearied experi- 
menters, who carefully wrote down the results of their 
experiments, to assist them in subsequent investigations. 
Our own further notes about pendulums were as 
follows : — 

Thirdly, The string being impracticable in a clock, 
and the pendulum requiring a rigid bar to support the 
** bob " or weight, this bar needs to be theoretically 
of invariable length, and freely suspended, so that its 
oscillations shall not be retarded by friction, nor caused 
to vary in duration by the eflfects of temperature. These 
requirements become in practice sources of much diflfi- 
culty, owing to the fact that metals expand by heat and 
contract by the action of cold, and therefore a bob 
suspended from a wire, as in common clocks, would not 
give the same results as a timekeeper in winter and 
summer, not even under the variations of temperature 
occurring almost every day. Wooden pendulum rods are 
less liable to vary in length, especially if varnished, and 
this is a very good material to use, where more compli- 
cated means cannot be employed, to compensate the 
expansion and contraction of metal rods. 

Fourthly, A long rod keeps time better than a short 
one, because its swing is steadier, and it is less easily 
checked or stopped by slight causes, and, on the whole. 



88 BO Y ENGINEERS. 

a pendulum beatino^ seconds is the best to use where 
a long clock-case or plenty of room is available, and 
appearance is not of importance. A seconds pendulum is 
39*37 inches long from the point of suspension to the 
centre of gravity of the bob for northern latitudes, which 
is quite near enough for boy clockmakers, at all events ; 
but it is as well to note that this pendulum, if used near 
the equator, would cause a clock to lose time, because the 
force of gravity which acts on falling bodies, and, in fact, 
causes them to fall, and causes the pendulum bob 
therefore to descend when lifted, is less at the equator 
than elsewhere. 

Ffithly, As our first clock was meant in a great 
measure to give us an insight into the mechanism of 
clocks, and would in all probability be far from perfect as 
a timekeeper, we considered that wooden wheels might be 
very well employed throughout, except in the scape-wheel, 
which would be constantly acted upon and rapidly worn 
by the pallets of the pendulum. This we saw at once 
must be made of metal — brass, if we could get it — tin, if 
we could not. The pinions we intended to make of wire 
if possible ; if not, we proposed to cut them as well as we 
could out of the substance of the axles, which were to be 
of wood, with wire pivots driven into each end. 

We next proceeded to calculate our wheel train, as it 
is called, — i.e., to find out how many teeth each wheel 



OUR WOODEN CLOCK. 89 

would require, and how many we must have on the several 
pinions to give the required speed to each. The scape 
wheel, acted on by a seconds pendulum, we found must 
have thirty teeth, as it must revolve once in a minute to 
receive a minute hand on the end of its arbor, the several 
teeth escaping on each double swing of the pendulum 
which beat seconds. We had nearly fallen into the 
mistake of making our scape wheel with sixty teeth ; but 
a study of an old Cyclopaedia showed us that, although a 
tooth escaped at each beat at one side of the wheel, the 
tooth diametrically opposite to it was instantly caught on 
the sloping face of the opposite pallet, which was so 
fermed as to give the pallet a slight impetus each time it 
oscillates, so as to maintain the motion of the pendulum. 
Thus, practically, only half a tooth escapes at each single 
beat of the pendulum, and thirty teeth are required 
instead of sixty. This wheel, revolving once in each 
minute, we had to arrange an intermediate one, gearing 
into that which would carry the minute hand, and which 
must, therefore, revolve once in each hour, or sixty times 
as fast as the escape wheel. This escape wheel, with a 
pinion of eight leaves, therefore, we found must turn a 
wheel of sixty teeth, which, with its pinion of eight leaves, 
must gear into one of sixty-four teeth to carry the minute 
hand. Then comes the barrel, with its string and weight. 
The spur wheel not being fixed to the axle, nor connected 



90 



BOV ENGINEERS. 



rigidly to the barrel or drum, as will be explained, the 
pinion of eight leaves of the minute-hand wheel turns on 
a wheel of ninety- six teeth in connection with this drum. 




Fig. 7.— Clock Train. 

which turns but once in twelve hours. To enable our 
young readers more fully to understand the nature of 



OUR WOODEN CLOCK. oi 

this train of clockwork, a sketch is appended here, the 
teeth heing omitted. Teeth, moreover, would be unneces- 
sary if the sizes of the several wheels and pinions were 
correct, and there was no slipping likely to take place, and 
this rolling contact, as it is called, is still used in various 
machines, but not in clocks. The number is affixed to the 
wheels to specify the number of teeth in each, while the 
number 8 is that of the pinions. These, it must be under* 
stood, are small wheels fixed on the axle of the large ones, 
either close to the latter or at the further end. Beginning 
at 96, the main, or great wheel, as it is called, which 
turns once in each hour, we see it driving the pinion of 
eight leaves of what is called the centre wheel, because it 
is commonly so placed that its axle, carrying the minute 
hand of the clock, shall project through the centre of the 
clock-face. Ninety-six being twelve times eight, it is 
plain that while the great wheel revolves once, the pinion 
will revolve twelve times ; and as the great wheel revolves 
once in twelve hours, this will revolve twelve times in the 
same time, or once in each hour, which is just what we 
require for the long hand of a clock. Of the short or 
hour hand, we shall speak presently, as it is not driven iu 
any part of this train, but by wheels just below the dial- 
plate. 

As the pinion revolves once in an hour, the spur 
wheel 64 will do the same, because it is on the same 



92 BOY ENGINEERS. 

axle; and as there are eight times eight in sixty-four, 
the pinion and wheel marked 6o will revolve eight times 
while the centre wheel revolves once — i.e.^ eight times 
in an hour. Now this works into a pinion of eight 
leaves on the arbor of the minute or scape wheel, and 
eight will not " go " into sixty, as boys say, without 
leaving a remainder. However, it will '' go " seven 
times and four over, which is 7f or ']\ times ; that is 
to say, this wheel will revolve 7I times while the second 
wheel, 60, revolves once. Therefore, while the latter 
revolves eight times (e.d., each hour), the scape wheel 
will revolve ']\ times multiplied by eight, which equals 
sixty ; and this is again just what is required to carry 
the seconds hand. We have worked upwards from 
the great wheel to make the relative speeds of the 
wheels clear to the reader, assuming that this great wheel 
revolves once in an hour ; but although the number of 
the teeth are arranged for this speed, the governing 
power is the seconds pendulum working on the teeth of 
the scape wheel. It would, however, come to the same 
thing to begin with this wheel as revolving once a minute, 
and so to work from it down to the great wheel which 
drives the whole. 

The next consideration was the pendulum, or rather 
the pallets, which were to act upon the scape wheel. 

We were sorely puzzled for a time between anchor 



OUR WOODEN CLOCK. 93 

pallets, dead beat, recoil, pin escapement, and others, 
of which we found accounts in some old books ; but for 
our first clock we came to the conclusion that the old- 
fashioned anchor would be easiest to make, because it 
only needed sawlike teeth on the scape wheel, whereas 
the dead-beat pallets required teeth of peculiar construc- 
tion, which we doubted our ability to make. 

Eventually, we picked up a wheel and its pallets 
ready made at a clockmaker's, who kindly presented us 
with this important treasure, and took some pains to 
point out to us the principles upon which it was con- 
structed. The pendulum, as already explained, is, as 
he told us, the timekeeper, but it would soon cease to 
swing if left to itself, and the train of wheels set in 
motion by the weight is necessary to give it through the 
scape wheel a slight impulse to and fro, to keep it in 
motion. One side of the teeth of the scape wheel are 
radial, the other sloping, and in this form of wheel the 
latter are the foremost, and fall in succession on the ends 
of the pallets. These, it will be seen from the accom- 
panying figure, are so shaped that the teeth falling on 
their rounded faces are first checked, and then tend to 
push the pallets from them, and so give swing to the 
crutch or wire to which they are fixed, first in one 
direction, and then in the other, one of the curved 



94 BO Y ENGINEERS. 

faces of the pallets being on the outside, and the opposite 
one on the inside. 

In the drawing of the clock train, the tooth, A, has 
just dropped upon the inner rounded face of the pallet, 
B, which cannot get free until the pendulum has swung 
far enough to allow it to escape. The tooth on the 
opposite side, however, has already escaped from the 
left pallet, upon which its successor will fall as soon as 
A gets free and advances, the scape wheel moving in 
the direction of the arrow. 

In the days of our boyhood there were many clocks 
in use fitted only with an hour hand, and as there 
appeared to us certain difficulties connected with the 
minute hand, which would need what is called dial-work, 
if the two hands were central, we decided to make use 
of a plan, which we afterwards learned was not unusual 
in astronomical clocks, but which we felt at the time 
to be a serious departure from ordinary rules — i.e.^ we 
fixed the hour hand to the axle of the great wheel of 
the winding barrel, which necessitated its going round 
backwards, the minute hand retaining its place on tlie 
pinion of the centre wheel. The appearance of the 
clock-face was consequently that of the accompanying 
illustration, in which is also displayed the scene 
of that dreadful, but constantly recurring, execution of 
the criminal already referred to. "We discarded, however. 



OUR WOODEN CLOCK. 




Fig. 8.— "That Awful Clock." 



90 BOY ENGINEERS. 



the origiaal characters, as scarcely in accordance with 
Dur ideas, and called the tragedy the execution of the 
tyrant Bluebeard. I am afraid our carving of the wife- 
destroyer in question would scarcely have found a place 
at the Royal Academy, the figure rather resembling one 
of those Indian or Chinese idols, or *' Samis," to be 
seen at the British Museum and elsewhere. We en- 
deavoured, however, to produce a physiognomy of the 
ferocious type, which a blue beard of wool considerably 
enhanced. 

This subject enabled us, however, to add one or two 
startling accessories, which were very effective. We made 
at one side of the stage a cupboard containing a headless 
skeleton, popularly supposed to be that of one of the 
luckless wives. Anatomists might possibly have been 
found to suggest that a mouse had originally owned the 
bones, but anyhow it was a skeleton, and a real one, and 
the door of the cupboard which contained it was forcibly 
flung open each time that the executioner did his duty, 
while at the same moment, two or three strokes upon a 
deep-toned bell i)roclaimed the sentence of the law to 
have been duly carried out. A black flag was also 
hoisted, and remained a few moments as a silent corrobo- 
ration of the fact. 

There is so much amusement always attaching to 
automata of the above kind, that all the details of 



OUR WOODEN CLOCK. 97 

the ways and means will be added. Most of such move- 
ments are very simple, and they become all the more 
amusing by being accomplished in that peculiar jerky 
style with which, to this day, the figure of the cuckoo 
performs his part in the Swiss clocks, which are aa 
much prized as ever, although so comparatively common. 

Let it be noted that a woman holds the dish for the 
reception of the criminal's head. The female in question, 
so young and so lovely, is supposed to be that happy but 
inquisitive survivor who held the position of last wife to 
the tyrant ; and we subsequently regretted that we had 
not placed " Sister Ann " upon the house-top waving 
her hand to the expected brothers. The difficulty resulted 
not from our lack of the requisite mechanical skill, but 
from the fact that the decapitation of Bluebeard showed 
the brothers in question to have already arrived upon the 
scene. 

We must now recur to the clock train, of which a side 
view is given here in fig. 9, in its place in the frame- 
work, which was made of beech, the holes being bushed 
wilh little bits of brass wire, drilled to receive the pivots 
cf the several spindles. The numbers of teeth on the 
wheels and pinions are here specified as before, but the 
way in which the latter gear into each other will be more 
clearly understood, as the axles or arbors of the wheels 
are clearly displayed. P shows the position of one of the 



98 



BOV ENGINEERS, 




Fig. g.— Clock Train. 



OUR WOODEN CLOCK. 99 

arms of the anchor pallet, attached to the metal rod V, 
called the verge. This passes through the inner frame at 
H without touching it, and also through the back frame, 
and is pivoted on a piece of brass of the form shown, 
which is screwed to the woodwork. This was done 
partly to insure the easj^ working of the pendulum, and 
partly for the greater ease of getting the verge into its 
place. D is called the crutch, and is formed of a stout 
wire screwed into a small boss upon the verge. It is bent 
out at E, or has another wire inserted at that point, 
which falls into a slot in the rod R of the pendulum, as 
shown again at G, or a fork is made at E, in which the 
pendulum hangs. The pendulum, therefore, it will be 
seen, is suspended independently of the verge and pallets, 
being hung from a projecting stud at T by means of a 
thin spring, S, or a bit of silk or other substance allowing 
it to swing easily and freely. In our clock, the pendulum 
of wood had a saw-cut made at the top extending half an 
inch downwards, and into this we inserted a bit of watch- 
spring ground very thin. This was slipped into a saw-cut 
in the stud T, and secured by a pin passing through it. 
The form of the rod was like W in the cross section, that 

it might oscillate with little resistance from the air a 

refinement scarcely necessary, considering the general 
nature of the workmanship and design. 

It was necessary to wind the clock from the back 
L.cfC. 



I oo BOY ENGINEERS. 

owing to our pntting the hour hand upon -the spindle 
of the drum and great wheel. The squared part of the 
spindle B was therefore made long enough to reach the 
back frame, in which an opening was left for the key. 
This we subsequently found so great a drawback,^ 
necessitating our taking down the clock to wind it, that 
we grooved the barrel like X. and made use of a chain 
which merely hung across it in the groove, and had 
sufficient hold in the latter to prevent slipping. To wind 
it, we then only had to lay hold of the other end of the 
chain, which had a light weight attached, and pull it, the 
ratchet and click answering the same purpose as when we 
used the drum with a long cord wound about it. To 
insure the chain against any chance of slipping, we drove 
in all round the bottom of the groove short wire pins, 
which caught the several links as the wheel revolved. 

The figures were made to perform their several parts 
in the following manner : — In fig. 8, it will be noticed 
that the executioner and vengeful wife both stand within 
a small circle, which represents a little platform pivoted 
vertically upon a wire axis. The arm of the woman, it 
will be observed, is also pivoted at the shoulder, so as 
to allow it to move up and down. The object of this 
is to cause her to raise the plate level with the victim's 
chin just before the fatal deed is done, immediately 
after which the head is carried forward upon the plate 



OUR WOODEN CLOCK. loi 



by the rotation of the fair lady upon her axis. The 
latter movement alone upon the part of the executioner 
enabled him to do his duty, which we compelled him tc 
do at each quarter of an hour. All the movements were 
done by jerks, as usual in such automata, and which 
made the whole scene ten times more grotesque than if 
accomplished in a graceful manner. To begin with the 
executioner. The movement of this terrible person 
needed to be especially sharp and sudden ; we therefore 
accomplished it by the release of a spring, bent gradually 
by a cam until the latter was released at the appointed 
time, and then gradually bent again until the fatal hour 
recurred. 

In fig. 9, W is a stout wire pivoted at the lower 
end into a horizontal arm of brass attached to the frame ; 
at its upper end it carries P, the circular disc on which 
the executioner stands. X is a flattened pin fixed to 
the upright wire, which is acted on by four projecting 
studs fixed at equal distances into the face of the wheel 
60, so that one of these studs comes into action at each 
quarter of an hour. A second projecting pin, Y, is 
constantly pressed by the wire spring S, fixed below 
into the brass plate which carries the wire W. Suppose 
that in its present position the spring rests lightly 
against Y, and that the executioner's sword has passed 
under his victim's neck, the beard preventing the space 



1 02 BOY ENGINEERS. 

between the neck and shoulders left to admit the sword 
from being seen. The figure must now gradually rotate 
on its axis, so as to draw the sword back again, and when 
a certain position has been reached the figure has to 
be released suddenly, and carried round by a rapid 
movement so as to cause the sword to pass through the 
neck, at which moment also the head must be jerked 
forward into the dish. This is done by the pins in 60 
pressing against the little pallet x as the wheel revolves, 
by which action the other pallet presses back more and 
more the spring S. This will go on, causing the figure 
to rotate and draw back his sword until the pin esca[)es 
from ar, when the spring S, being now fully strained, 
will be able to act suddenly on the pin Y, and the 
executioner will deftly repeat his fatal work. 

We must now turn our attention to the head. This is 
fixed to the end of a steel wire passing easily through 
a hole in the inner frame. All the ])arts must be made 
to move as easily as possible, to prevent the clock from 
being stopped by their action. For this reason the 
spring S must be only just strong enough to give rapid 
motion to the figure. H is a long light spring of 
hammered brass or steel, fixed at one end to the frame, 
and at the other to the horizontal wire carrying the 
head. The latter, if blackened, will not show, the back 
of the stage being also painted a dark colour. N is a 



OUR WOODEN CLOCK. 103 

wooden T^-lieel on tlie axis of the hour wheel, into which 
is fixed four stout wires bent as shown, which alternately 
act upon the spring H. They are bent so as to slope 
gradually from the wheel a short distance, after which 
they are parallel to the surface of the wheel ; they then 
turn sharply down and are fixed into the wood. This 
sharp bend of each comes exactly opposite the pins on 
the other side of the hour wheel, and act at the same 
moment. The wire spring H is so bent and so placed 
that, as the wheel N revolves, the bent wires catch it 
first on their inclined part, which pressing back the 
epring, gradually draw the head of the figure back until 
it rests upon the neck, and remains during the time that 
the flat part of these wires touch it. But just as the 
sword of the executioner falls, the spring drops off the 
wires suddenly, and the head is shot forward in an 
instant upon the plate, looking as if wholly detached, 
especially if seen from below as the clock hangs on the 
wall. As the wheel continues to revolve, the spring is 
gradually pressed back again, rising upon the inclined 
surface of the next wire. What are at first sight 
complicated motions are thus readily produced by a few 
bits of bent wire. The arm of the woman is raised by an 
evpally simply contrivance. An eccentric pulley of box- 
wood, L, is fixed on the axle of the hour wheel 60, the 
eccentric hoop or strap being a bit 01 wire fitting it 



I04 BOY ENGINEERS. 

easily, and twisted together at the ends. To this is 
attached a bit of silk, K, the other end of which is 
tied to an extension of the arm of the figure concealed 
by the dress, as is also the silk cord. The arm and 
its attachments only are here drawn. M is the pivot 
on wliich the arm is hinged at the shoulder. The 
eccentric is so placed that it will draw the string tight, 
and cause the plate to rise level with the head, just 
at the moment the latter is about to be cut off and 
thrust forward, so that it is apparently caught very 
cleverly. As the eccentric continues its revolution the 
arm with the plate is allowed gradually to drop, the 
plate being slightly weighted with lead to keep up a 
proper tension of the silken cord. 

The black flag is hoisted at the moment of execution 
by the upper part of the long spring coming in contact 
with the end of the bent lever, and pressing it suddenly 
forward, thus raising its straight end, which forms the 
flagstaff. All the various movements have to be exactly 
timed, but present no great difficulty. The eccentric, for 
instance, is lightly pinned until its action has been tested, 
and then it is secured. The wheel is also tested before 
being fixed on its axle, and the springs and wire? will 
need only a little careful adjustment by means of the 
pliers. The long spring may be of watch-spring, straight- 
ened by being pinched in a fold of stout leather, and 



OUR WOODEN CLOCK. 105 

drawn a few times between the fing-er and thumb or the 
jaws of a vice until the curl is taken out. Brass wire, 
however, is equally good for the purpose, and if 
hammered or drawn through a conical hole in a steel 
plate, so as to compress and harden it, is largely used 
for this purpose by organ and harmonium makers and 
others ; and if a turn or two is taken by winding it round 
a small iron rod, as shown here, makes a pleasanter, and 
to some extent a better, spring than the steel. If used, 
it should be flattened where it has to act against the lever 
of the flag, or any similar part of the mechanism. The 
opening of the skeleton cupboard is not detailed on 
purpose to exercise our reader's ingenuity. It was made 
to fly open with a jerk a few seconds before the decapita- 
tion of the criminal. The ingenious youngster who may 
chance to read these pages should devi>;e various acces- 
sory movements — as, for instance, a bell to strike before 
the execution takes place. A small lathe and a very few 
simple tools and materials only are required to make the 
above. The clock will possibly not keep very good time, 
owing to the extra work laid upon it of moving the 
automata, but if care is taken not to overload it, it will 
answer fairly well as a timekeeper. 



Chapter V. 




SOME MORE AUTOMATA. 

E succeeded so well with what subsequently 
obtained the name of " that awful clock," that 
we thought we would try our hands at a few 
more of these mechanical toys, and among 
them, our next attempt was a piping bullfinch, such as 
we had read about, but not at that time seen. At first 
we did not hit upon the best mode of producing the bird's 
song, but it answered fairly enough until we found out 
the better and simpler plan. 

This very pretty little mechanical songster was first 
brought into notice at the Exhibition of 1 85 1, where it 
found crowds of enthusiastic admirers. At Paris it met 
with equal honour, and, indeed, although called a piping 
bullfinch, the real toy was a number of birds on a tree 



SOME MORE AUTOMATA. 107 

under glass, hopping to and fro, and chirping and 
twittering most naturally, their wings fluttering and 
beaks moving, and even their throats expanding and 
quivering as if alive. They were formed as we made our 
own, of the skins of real birds over a framework of wire 
and wood, the skeleton being preserved where possible. 
Our own was, of course, but a humble affair, as we con- 
tented ourselves with a little movement of the winsfs and 
quivering of the beak, our chief attention being directed 
to the mechanical arrangements for producing the bird's 
song. This part of the apparatus we made so as to serve 
permanently, as we intended from time to time to change 
the warbler, arranging the notes to suit the particular l»ird. 
The lower part of the stand contained the mechanism, a 
tree branch forming the perch, upon which any bird could 
be mounted at pleasure in a few seconds. We had a 
linnet, goldfinch, and bullfinch, and subsequently added 
on a separate branch a thrush ; and I still think that, for 
mere youngsters, we managed to give very good imitations 
of their respective songs. We subsequently, however, 
attempted a still higher flight, not by the addition of a 
skylark, but by an attempt to imitate the song of a 
nightingale, which, it is well known, has a greater 
natural variety of notes than any other of our native 
songsters. 

We had first to consider the wind-chest or bellows, and 



To8 BOY ENGINEERS. 

here we found a few experiments necessary. Onr first 
idea was to make a miniature pair of double bellows, like 
those of a blacksmith, to keep up a continuous blast, and 
to attach to the upper part a short whistle pipe, with 
keys like those of a flute, to ba acted on by a series of 
little tappets on a barrel, pinned like that of a musical 
box. A trial of this, however, did not satisfy us, as it 
was found impossible to imitate successfully the trill or 
quiver of a bird's song. We consequently discarded 
the double bellows for a pair of single acting ones kept 
open by a spring inside ; and on trying these with a 
common whistle of one note only, tapping the movable 
board of the bellows with the fingers, we found it more 
hopeful. We found, however, that although a whistle of 
one note would give, for that note, the kind of sound 
required, it did not answer so well with two or three 
notes and keys, but that it was necessary (as in a 
cuckoo clock) to have one distinct pipe for each note with 
its own separate single bellows, unless we inserted a wind- 
chest like that of an organ between the bellows and the 
pipes. We were decided on the latter course accidentally, 
by hearing an organist shaking upon two keys of verj 
high pitch in an organ that was undergoing repair or 
being tuned, and the notes, chancing to be very nearly 
those required, sounded so birdlike, that we no longer 
iesitated to adopt the above plan. 



SOME MORE AUTOMATA. 109 



We commenced by making a shallow box of quarter- 
inch deal for the top and bottom, but with the end 
pieces as well as the back and front of half-inch stuff, 
which at once gave strength and neatness to the work. 
In the top board were four holes for pipes, and under 
these were four pull-down pallets, like those of an organ 
hinged with leather, the same strip serving also to face 
and render them air-tight. These were pulled down by 
brass wires hooked into eyes or rings in each, and they 
were kept up by springs also made of brass wire. The 
pull-down wires, hanging straight down from the pallets, 
passed of necessity through holes in the lower board of 
this case or wind-chest, through which it was necessary 
that they should move easily, but without allowing wind 
to escape round them. They were not indeed air-tight, 
but by careful drilling were sufBciently so for our purpose. 
Although, however, a little leakage was not likely to be 
of great importance, we glued a strip of leather along the 
bottom of the wind-chest, to form a kind of padding 
where the wires passed through, which, fitting closely 
round them, made the case tolerably wind-proof even 
under full pressure. As we foresaw diflSculty in attacliiug 
the pull-downs to the pallets, we left the front of the 
chest open until they were arranged and hooked to their 
respective loops, and we also took care that the ends of 
the pallets should come as close to the front as possible, so 



no BOY ENGINEERS. 



that with a small pair of pliers we could easily manage 
the work. 

In all our subsequent automata, as well as in this, we 
found that we always saved much time and temper by 
careful consideration beforehand of all such minor details. 
If every individual part is not planned with due care, it 
is almost sure to be found when too late that some wheel, 
or wire, or lever, cannot by any possibility be got into 
its place. 

A story is told of an architect who, after he had 
planned a house, and had it partially built, suddenly 
discovered that he had forgotten to provide for a stair- 
case, and as by no possible contriving could he after- 
wards insert it, he hit upon the Swiss method, and put it 
outside, introducing thereby a novel feature in English 
domestic architecture, and making a name and a fortune 
out of a mistake. It is not, however, easy to act in a 
similar way with a badly-planned piece of machinery, and 
an oversight in such a design entails a very good chance 
of failure in its working. 

Happily a little forethought, and, let it be confessed, 
a little previously dearly-bought experience, enabled 
us to escape this dilemma, and we had no difficulty of 
the kind to contend with on the present occasion. 

Having completed the little wind-chest, which was 
three inches long, an inch and a half wide, and an inch 



SOME MORE AUTOMATA. 



Ill 



deep, we attached it to a framework which allowed 
the bellows to be placed below, leaving room above 
them for the working of the levers which were to act 
on the pull-downs. A sketch will, however, make this 




Fig. 10. 



part of the arrangement clearer than any mere verbal 
description. 

A section of the wind-chest is given at A A of fig. lo, 
and this was concealed in the stand of the automaton. 
The pipes, BB, which are here represented as standing 
upright, were also laid flat on the top of the wind-chest, 



112 £0V ENGINEERS. 

a short bit of lead gaspipe connecting them with the 
wind channels and valves below. These valves or pallets 
are seen in cross section at CC, and again at Z as seen 
from below, and at MN as seen from one side. In the 
latter figure, M is a cross section of the wind-chest 
with the lower end of a pipe inserted, P is the pull-down 
wire, and N the spring which keeps the pallet shut. 
A light spring sufficed, as the tendency of the pres- 
sure of wind in the chest was also to keep the valves 
close. 

KK are feeders, or the movable parts of the bellows 
hinged at HH. These drive the wind into the upper 
part or reservoir, L, through two valves in aa, the fixed 
board which separates the upper and lower parts of 
the bellows. These valves, not shown in the drawing, 
are merely flat bits of board faced with soft leather 
covering two holes. They open upwards to admit wind, 
but shut down air-tight when not thus raised. There are 
similar ones in the bottom boards of the two feeders. 
The l.'itter are worked alternately by means of a rocking 
lever, GG, centred on a pivot, the ends being connected 
by wires, FF, to the cranl.s at each end of the barrel, 
as will be explained presently. 

GG are coiled springs to press down the top of the 
reservoir, and drive the wind out into the chest, aa. 
The wind passes up a short wind trunk, D, at the back, 



SOME MORE A UTOMA TA. 1 13 

and is merely a square wooden pipe opening into 
the upper reservoir at a point in the central board, aa, 
to which its lower end is attached. The chest is thus 
kept full of wind at the necessary pressure to cause the 
pipes to speak as soon as either is opened by pulling 
down its pallet. 

In the section it appears of necessity as if the bellows 
was level with the front of the chest, and the pallets just 
above it. In the other drawing, however, to the right 
hand, T is one of the pull-downs, and V a second lever 
or rocking shaft going to the bellows, which are placed 
back beyond the plane of the pull-downs. These are 
worked by the arrangements shown. B, is a lever of 
iron or brass one-eighth thick or less, hinged at its centre. 
One end is filed to the shape shown, the other is flattened 
and drilled to receive the end of the pull-down which 
passes through it, and is screwed to take a nut below. 
By means of this nut the tension of the wire can be 
regulated with great nicety. is the end of the barrel, 
which is exactly similar to those of organs, J being a 
part of the same seen in front, with one crank, I, fixed 
to the end of the axle. At W is seen the same crank 
with the wire which leads to the rocking shaft of the 
bellows, as already explained. Q shows wire staples of 
various lengths driven into the barrel at intervals. 
They are shown also at J. By means of the end of the 

d 



114 BOY ENGINEERS. 

levers R, of which one goes to each pull-down, motion 
is communicated to the pallets, which are opened by 
the action of the staples as the barrel revolves. If a 
staple is long, like that shown, acting on the lever, the 
valve of that particular pipe is held open for a long 
time, until in fact the staple has passed and escaped 
from the lever. Short notes are the result of the short 
staples, some of which are mere single pins, which hold 
the pipe open for a second only. If, instead of a steady 
note, one is desired with a quiver or " trill," the top of 
the staple, instead of being made straight and level, is 
indented or waved, so as partly to open and close the 
valve with great rapidity. A shake between two notes 
is made by inserting their staples, so that they may 
act alternately. Four pipes, each with its own row 
of staples running round a barrel, suffice in this way 
to give great variety of song. By driving one end 
of a staple deeper than the other, the valve it is connected 
with is opened very gradually, giving a note of increasing 
loudness ; and by varying the form and size of staples, 
every variety of note is capable of production with great 
accuracy. 

In the present case, the barrel, being of small size, is 
just as well made of a solid piece of wood. Willow, being 
soft, allows the pin to be driven in very easily, and is 
what we ourselves used. The staples were of brass wire 



SOME MORE AUTOMATA. 115 

fiatteued ; but though we flattened ours with a hammer, 
nre subsequently discovered that wire can be readily bought 
drawn flat, triangular, or square, as well as round. 

A few particulars may as well be entered into here about 
making the barrel, which may be mysterious to such as 
know nothing about it. It is, however, a simple affair; 
and when we come to speak of our grand attempt at 
making an organ, it will be seen that to prick and staple 
a barrel does not need such an unusual amount of brains. 
In short, a boy's brain canister may very easily contain 
sufficient gumption. Suppose, for instance, there are 
four pipes, which have to sound at stated intervals, and 
for a stated period. Cover the barrel, if of mahogany, 
with white paper, or if of white wood, leave it as it is, 
and wliile still in the lathe, draw four lines upon it at the 
distances of the four levers which are to work the pull- 
downs and valves. Each of these circumferential lines 
will mark the position of a circle of pins and staples, 
each circle of pins acting only upon one pipe of the set. 
Now, whether the apparatus be an organ, a musical box, 
or our bird, the whole tune has to be completed in a 
single revolution of the barrel, and the pins and staples 
have to be so arranged as to produce it. The tune we 
ourselves required was not very long, and it certainly 
was not very complicated. We may write it as — twitter- 
twitter-twit — twit-twit — twitter — twit — t - t — titter-itter 



1 1 6 BOY ENGJNEhRS. 

— ter — twit-twit ; but we can't express the wondrous 
trill, and shake, and tremolo, like or unlike a bird's song, 
which we contrived to elaborate. 

We may consider the tune to contain exactly eight 
bars. It was therefore necessary now to draw eight lines 
along the barrel lengthwise, which we were forced to do 
without that convenient addition to a lathe — a dividino' 
plate and index. This was not so difficult a feat after 
all, for we simply cut a strip of paper long enough to go 
round the barrel, and folded it into eight equal parts, 
and having drawn a line with a straight edge (the top of 
our lathe-rest) along the barrel as a startiug-point, we 
marked the divisions at each end, and drew lines 
from one to the other. Each circle first drawn upon the 
circumference of the barrel was thus exactly divided into 
eight equal parts, either of which represented one bar of 
music. These main lines we ruled with red ink, to dis- 
tinguish them from those subsequently made, which 
denoted lesser divisions or shorter notes. These larger 
spaces were subdivided by black lines into four equal parts, 
which sufficed as a guide to the arrangement of the pins 
and staples. If we had, for example, been setting an 
actual tune in common or four time, each space would 
have contained one of the notes, and if, instead of 
one crochet, we desired a semibreve, we had but to make 
the staple long enough to span two notes or two divi- 



SOME MORE AUTOMATA. 117 



sions. But in the present instance, we had not to 
compose music beyond the simple twitter-twit suitable 
for our bird, so that very accurate subdivision was not 
necessary. XY in the drawing shows a part of the upper 
board of the wind-chest, seen from below, except 
that the openings under the pallets were round to receive 
the pipes. The long slits are given to show at the same 
time the form always used in organs. We adopted the 
long pallet because it was on the whole easier to make 
than a round one. The leather which faced it formed 
also (as is usual) the hinge at Z. This leather appears 
as a black line at the top of the pallet shown at MN. 

In this our first attempt we did not make the works 
self-acting, but led a cord from a large pulley on the 
axle of the barrel to a smaller one with a winch handle 
attached to it, by which we set the whole in motion. 
In a better one made at a later date we used clockwork, 
moved by a spring with a fan to regulate the rate, as in the 
striking part of an ordinary clock. The whistles were 
made exactly like miniature organ pipes as sketched, in 
the construction of which no great difficulty presented 
itself. 

After what has been said about " the awful clock," it 
will not appear very mysterious to the reader how we 
contrived to give motion to the bird, which was set upon 
a pede^'iial of rough wood with the bark on. The pedesta} 



1 1 8 BOY ENGINEERS. 

^ — I ... ■ < 

being drilled first, then sawn apart lengthwise, and put 
together with pins after the wires concealed in it were in 
place. 

By this means we could get at the wires readily to fix 
them at first, and subsequently, if they should at 
any time need to be altered or readjusted. The 
lower beak was carefully snipped off at tlie base, and a 
bit of wood glued to it so as to lengthen it inwards, 
and also form a lever, which moved upon a pin passed 
horizontally through it. This will be understood on inspec- 
tion of the drawing of the bird's head : h is the pivot on 
which the lever turns, x the wire or silk going down to the 
machinery below. After the attachments are made, the 
skin is again carefully glued round the base of the beak. 
The wings were left hanging to the skin, which made the 
joint, and were moved in a fluttering way by a T-shaped 
bit of wire, the stem going down the pedestal by the side 
of the other wire, and the cross head supporting the 
wings, one on each side, and concealed by the feathers. 
The movement was simply to raise the wings a little, and 
let them fall again, which was accomplished by the end 
of the wire resting on the edge of a wheel with undula- 
tions round its edge, and so fitted as to turn somewhat 
quickly but irregularly. This gave just the slight flutter 
required. We found it indeed quite possible to dispense 
with one wire in the pedestal, by attaching the end of 



SOME MORE AUTOMATA. 119 



the thin lever, which was glued to the beak, to the wire 
which moved the wings. The same wheel moving both 
at the same moment, gave an appearance of simultaneous 
muscular action very true to nature. 

In all these automatas, of which we made a good 
many from time to time, we found that attention was 
much needed in producing similar movements at 
irregular fitful intervals. When this is skilfully accom- 
plished there is less appearance of mechanical work, 
because nature works just with what we may call 
irregular regularity, and the failure even in such a 
collection as that of Madame Tussaud's in giving a more 
natural appearance, lies in the fact that the automatic 
movements are too regularly performed. They suggest 
clockwork the moment we look at them. 

The fluttering of the wings of our bird being de- 
pendent, as stated, upon a wheel with serrated or 
irregularly-notched edge, we had only to make each part 
as different in outline from any other as we could, to 
secure the variable motions of the wings an 1 beak. But 
we even added to this irregularity of movement, in the 
following manner : — 

We drove the serrated wheel by a cord from a pulley 
on the axis of the barrel, but we made this pulley 
slightly eccentric, so that tlie cord was not always equally 
tight. The result was, that when it was not strained 



120 BOV ENGINEERS. 



Bufficiently to drive the serrated wheel, the latter was still 
for a few seconds, until the eccentric pulley revolved far 
enough to enable it to draw the cord tight, when it cf 
course started again. It was just so arranged as regards 
eccentricity that it made the cord tight enough to work 
for the greater part of its revolution, and only slackened 
it for about one-sixth part, during which the wings and 
beak when worked together ceased to move ; and when 
the latter was the case, we of course took care that the 
warbling should also cease, by the absence of pins in the 
barrel at that particular part. 

In making this automaton without having any oppor- 
tunity of knowing precisely the best way of doing it, 
we had to work literally note by note, without any other 
guide than the ear, aided by some recollection of the 
successive notes of the bird we hoped to imitate. By 
the help of a piano, however, on which to try the various 
modulations, and aided still further by a good-natured 
sister, who had the patience of Job, we succeeded, and 
fully accomplished our self-imposed task, and mighty 
proud we were too of our first warbler. 




Chapter VI. 

OUR FIRST ORGAN. 

HE success of our songster, described in the last 
chapter, made us ambitious to try our hands 
upon an organ. But we had to moderate this 
ambition, and be content with a small affair, 
on account of the cost of material necessary to be 
incurred for a large instrument. We were therefore 
limited to four octaves of notes, but with one additional 
stop we could somewhat extend the scale, and we deter- 
mined some day to try our skill in the fabrication of 
a much better " kist o* whistles," as amateurs' organs 
have been ignominiously named. 

In our youth, alas 1 there were none of the pleasant 
and instructive mechanical works now in use. The 
"English Mechanic" was not even born, and the " Encyclo- 



BOY ENGINEERS. 



p8Bdia Britannica " was our sole teacher of the mysteries 
of an organ's inside. 

We might have much simplified matters had we not 
aspired to the one stop, which entailed, in addition to 
a wind-chest, a sound-board — a part far more complicated 
than its name would indicate, as it is not a board at all, 
but a shallow box with slides to cut off or open the 
various rows of pipes as may be required. In large 
instruments there are many of these sound-boards, and 
the pipes are numbered by thousands. In the organ at 
the Albert Hall, Kensington, there are rows and rows of 
stops one over the other, but all within reach and com- 
mand of the organist. 

There is not, after all, any very great difficulty in organ- 
building. It is merely joiner's work well and soundly 
done. But the pipes offer difficulties peculiar to them- 
selves. They may simply sound a noise^ or a note of 
music distinct and decided. Nothing but practice will 
enable any one to make a thoroughly good set of pipes, 
even in wood, and metal ones are hardly within the 
province of boys, or indeed of the majority of their 
elders ; but a boy may make pipes sufficiently well to 
give a very fair tone, and may construct a small organ 
which will give him and others both amusement and 
pleasure. 

The prime mover, as it may be called, is ol course 



OUR FIRST ORGAN. 123 



wind supplied to the pipes from the bellows, which 
are of the double kind, like those of a blacksmith, but 
always made of an oblong shape, and generally occupying 
the lower part of the instrument next the floor. Some- 
times, however, the bellows are conveniently placed else- 
where, and are set on end instead of lying horizontally. 
From them the wind in a high pressure state passes up 
the wind trunk, a wooden pipe of square or oblong 
section, which is often provided with a valve at one side 
opening outwards, and kept close by a spring. This is 
to provide against any sudden forcible impulse of the air 
by the fault of the bellows blower, as a sudden gust 
opens the valve and allows of the escape into the air of 
the wind in its compressed state, so that only a steady 
and uniform blast is conveyed into the wind-chest, and 
thence through the channels in the sounding-board to 
the pipes, by means of the slides and keys. Plenty 
of wind steadily supplied is of the first necessity, and if 
the bellows are too small, the instrument can never 
prove of much practical value, but excess of wind is 
easily got rid of by a simple plan of escape-valve, 
which acts as soon as the reservoir rises to an undue 
height. 

Turning our attention, therefore, first to the bellows, 
they are found to consist of three boards connected 
together on all sides by an envelope or casing of leather. 



124 BOY ENGINEERS. 

Ill the lower and middle boards are flap valves — pieces of 
wood covered with leather aud hinged to open upwards, if 
the bellows are to take a horizontal position. The hinge 
is made by nailing down the leather which forms the 
face of the valve, and which is cut long enough to 
permit of its being thus used. In double bellows the 
middle board is fixed to the framing, and the lower 
one is worked up and down by the lever or rocking staff. 
As it falls, air rushes through the valve, but cannot again 
escape, and is driven by the raising of the lower board 
through the middle valve into the upper part of the 
bellows, or reservoir, as it is called in an organ. The 
upper board forming the top of this reservoir is pressed 
down by springs or weights, and drives the wind out 
into the wind-chest through a pipe or trunk, generally of 
wood, which opens into the reservoir just above the central 
board to which it is fixed. 

Bellows, however, made in this way would be apt to 
rise and fall very irregularly, and would not be compact 
when closed and empty. Between the several boards, 
therefore, alluded to, there are oblong frames of wood, to 
the edges of which the leather is nailed ; these frames 
being the same size as the boards. These keep the 
leather extended equally on all four sides, and rise and 
fall as the bellows are alternately expanded and closed. 
In addition to these, there are also crossed guides hinged 



OUR FIRST ORGAN. 125 

by a pivot to the corners of the boards, and also pinned 
together where they cross, which compel the boards to rise 
horizontally and equally. 

The boards and frames are generally of ash or elm, 
which are tough durable woods, not liable to split by 
driving the nails to attach the leather. They should be 
dry and well seasoned to prevent the risk of warping, 
which, however, would not be so fatal in the bellows as 
to the wind-chest and other parts. Any soft and 
pliable skin will do for the bellows of a small organ. 
That called basil is very general, and is prepared in a 
particular way for the special work. 

It may, however, be mentioned here, that in a large 
church organ of modern construction, the bellows are not 
made like house or smith's bellows; there are the three 
main boards, but the intermediate part is not wholly 
of leather, but of boards with leather joints, enabling 
them to fold closely together and to rise evenly on 
all isides. They are made, in fact, like the bellows of an 
ordinary Accordion, except that in that instrument the 
thin boards or ribs are of card instead of wood. They 
require a good deal of careful cutting and fitting, but are 
vastly superior to bellows wholly made of leather, and 
are therefore no.v universally adopted. Made simply 
of three boards with intermediate stretching-frames, there 
is the advantage of not requiring corner gussets and such- 



126 BOY ENGINEERS. 

like details, which are so difficult to cut and fit properly ; 
but, ou the other hand, more leather is Deeded, making 
an increase of cost, and the finished work is not so 
neat. Both methods are given, however, here, for we 
used both, and I think with about equal success. In the 
ensuing description, however, the orthodox plan will be 
described. 

For the wind-chest we used deal, straight-grained, 
clean pine, as dry as we could obtain ; and never did we 
find greater need of sharp, finely-set planes to square up 
and render it true in all directions. By this time, 
however, we were tolerably versed in the practice of 
joinery, and had satisfactorily passed that Pons Asinorum 
of amateurs, the art of planing. The pipes were also 
of deal, with the exception of the caps and blocks, 
hereafter to be described, which were made of mahogany. 
The lower conical tubes, which fitted into the holes of the 
sound-board, however, we made of beech, as being easy 
to turn, and already part of our stock-in-trade. The 
keys were not altogether home-made, for we managed 
to purchase an old worn-out piano of ancient date, whose 
keys we modified to suit our purpose. They were rather 
narrow, and the ivory finger-plates no longer of the 
delicate colour which gives such beauty to the keyboard 
of modern instruments. They nevertheless served us 
very well, and saved us a great deal of difficult work. 



OUR FIRST ORGAN. 127 



The four octaves of keys occupied a length of two feet, 
and coDsisted of furty-uine uotes, beginning and end- 
ing with C natural. From this we took our various 
dimensions. Forty-nine notes with two stops required 
ninety-eight pipes, so that we certainly had our hands full 
of work, as our heads were full of ambition and of hope. 
The organ was, in fact, of very fair and serviceable size, 
and, well handled, was capable of discoursing much music, 
despite many slight defects peculiar to the work of 
youthful amateurs. 

As the keyboard required a width or length of two 
feet, and an organ pipe of wood, being wider than a single 
key, would need more room, we saw that we should 
hardly be safe with a sound-board on which these pipes 
would be placed, of less than three feet, even if we put 
a few of the large pipes iu front, and carried the wind to 
them by leaden feeders. We therefore made it four 
feet, so as to err, if at all, on the safe side. The bellows 
might, we considered, be less, and we made them three 
feet by eighteen inches, which proved sufficient. 

The annexed illustrations will show the relations of 
wind-chest and sound-board with the mechanism of the 
stops, by which one or more rows of pipes may be used 
at the discretion of the player. 

In fig. II, the sound-board is seen partly in section. 
It consists of a strong shallow box, divided into channels 



128 



BOY ENGINE EJiS. 



by bars planed very true, the ends of these being let into 
the sides of the chest. Great care is taken to render 
the channels thus formed perfectly air-tight, even again&t 

H 




Fi?. II. 

C, Channels. T, Top of lower part. S, Slide. T, Top board. D, Divisions or bam, 

M, Holes ill lowest board. 

the full pressure of wind that can be brought into them 
by the bellows. There must be as many of these 



OUR FIRST ORGAN. 129 

channels as keys, each answering to a single note. It 
may be explained at once in this place, that the reason 
the channels are needed is, that every single note of 
an organ may have several pipes of wood or metal, of 
wliich, when a key is pressed, one or more may sound as 
may be desired. Taking the first channel, therefore, of 
our organ, all the pipes standing over it were tuned to C. 
We had but two pipes to each note, but if the sound- 
board were wide enough, it is plain that several might be 
ranged over the same channel. This sound-board beinsf 
80 far completed, the upper board is glued and screwed 
on, but generally the whole of the bottom board is not 
attached, a part of the bars appearing underneath until 
the pallets are put on, and the wind-chest, which covers 
and conceals them. In our small organ, however, we 
covered the whole of the bottom of the bars as well as 
the top, so that none of the inside arrangements were 
visible. 

Before screwing on the top and bottom, we took care 
to glue the edges of all the bars, as well as those which 
formed the outside or frame, and while the glue was hot 
we put on the boards, and drove the screws home quickly, 
making all perfectly wind-proof. 

We now had to arrange the stop, and our method of 
doing so will explain that adopted in large organs. 

The object of a stop is to shut off any row of pipes, 



I30 BOV ENGINEERS. 

and therefore it has to act upon all the channels at the 
same time. Suppose a hole to be bored, H, over each 
channel, through which the wind would pass if a key 
were pressed down ; and suppose a row of pipes, properly 
tuned, placed over such hole, any of these might be 
sounded at pleasure. Let the pipes be now removed, and 
a long strip of board, S, laid along over the holes, with 
holes bored in it to match those below. It is evident 
that a little movement of this board lengthwise would 
close all the holes simultaneously, so that if the pipes 
stood over the slide, not one of them would sound unless 
the slide were again shifted, so as to make the holes 
coincide as before. One such slide is arranged for each 
row of pipes, and is called a stop, and named by the title 
given to the pipes in that row, whether of wood or 
metal. 

The slides are arranged thus : — Strips of clean deal or 
mahogany, HH, are glued down at distances equal tc 
the width of the slides, and of exactly their thickness, 
reaching from end to end lengthwise. These are the guide 
bars between which the slides move. The slides them- 
selves are preferably made of well-seasoned mahogany, 
as not being liable to warp and twist, because it is 
absolutely necessary that they should move smoothly and 
easily, and without shake. Upon the edges of these 
bars, which are from half an inch to an inch thick, or 



OUR FIRST ORGAN. 13* 

in large organs even more, are glued strips of brown 
paper, on which rests the top board, which is bored at the 
same time as the top of the sound-board and slide, to 
receive the ends of the pipes. The paper raises this board 
very slightly, just so much as to let the slides free. The 
first guide strips are glued on flush with the top edge 
of the sound-board, so that when the top board is on, and 
screwed down, it forms with the top of the sound-board 
another very shallow box divided by the guide strips 
into long channels, but wider channels than those before 
described. In fact, as regards the shallowness of this 
part, it is of course dependent on the thickness of the 
slides and the guide strips between them, and we found 
three-eighth stuff amply sufficient for the purpose, making 
the depth and thickness of the strips equal. 

Dividing the total length of the sound-board into 
eighths of an inch, in order the better to find out 
the width we could afford to each channel, and taking 
three-eighths as the thickness of the strips by which to 
divide it into the several compartments, we found that we 
had 288 eighths, which would give us forty-nine divi- 
sions of more than five-eighths, but less than six-eighths 
each. These would include the strips and the channels, 
80 that if these were equal, we should have, roughly 
speaking, three-eighth strips and three-eighth channels. 
But as some of the large pipes needed more wind than 



132 BOY ENGINEERS. 

such small channels seemed likely to carry to them, we 
made some fully six-eighths, and others only quarter, and 
also used quarter stuff instead of three-eighths for a great 
part of the distance. The outside of the framework 
was, however, all of inch stuff, as this had to receive 
the screws by which the top and bottom were fastened 
on. 

Oblong holes, or two holes a little distance apart, were 
now necessary, as at M, in the front part of the lower 
board of the sound-board communicating with the several 
channels, over each of which holes the pallet had to be 
fitted. In large organs the bottom board would have 
ended, as shown, towards the right hand, so as to expose 
the bottom of the bars, which would of course have 
answered as well, the pallets being fitted to cover 
the spaces between the bars, and prevent wind from 
entering the channels. We thought it would be easier 
to work in the other way. 

At P is a section across the centre of the sound-board 
and wind-chest, which, with the previous descrip*-ion 
and illustrations, will make the whole arrangements 
quite clear. Here a will represent the upper board of the 
sound-board, above which is the rack for pipes — a board 
supported on short pillars, and bored to fit the turned 
feet of the pipes and keep them upright. The white 
space, 3, is that of the slides or stop-boards ; c, the upper 



OUR FIRST ORGAN. 133 

board of the sound-board before the addition of the guides 
and slides; d^ one of the wind channels; and e the 
bottom board. Below this, which carries the row of 
pallets, y, is fixed an oblong box running the whole length 
of the sound-board, and occupying width enough to allow 
t'he action of the pallets to take place within it. It is 
marked f^ and is called the wind-chest. It receives 
its wind from the wind-trunk rising from the bellows, 
which may open into it at either end or at the back, 
as most convenient. Ours was at the left or bass end 
of the instrument. The wire pull-down is seen at ^, 
which is acted on by the key direct in a small instru- 
ment. 

It will be noticed, in this description of our organ, 
that I frequently generalise, in order, while describing 
the humble instrument which we contrived to make, to 
give the reader some insight into the construction of 
such • organs as are made for our churches by modern 
builders, the object being to make our little volume as 
useful as possible, even to some few who may con- 
descend to peruse its contents, though the jacket has 
given place to coat-tails and other abominations of an 
adult's dress. 

We must now return to the bellows, a small portion of 
which is illustrated here at BLB, and also at B2. The 
first is a side view, showing the wood and leather as seen 



134 BOY E NGINEERS. 

when the bellows are partially distended ; the latter, a 
section showing the way in which the joints are con- 
structed. In the first the leather is left white, and 
in both drawings it is marked L. The sectional view 
shows that the leather is placed inside as well as outside 
the boards, the latter being bevelled off each way as at 
E, to allow the boards to fold together as they ought 
to do. 

It is now necessary to enter into the mystery of pipes^ 
both wood and metal. Of the latter we should certainly 
have made a great mess, for they can hardly be made by 
amateurs a great deal more practised than we were in 
organ construction. We made our second row, however, 
in a way of our own, and gave it the name of Hautboy, 
as being a kind of reed-stop, though I doubt if ever 
before or since a similar one has been made. An organ 
pipe is (omitting reed pipes) merely a well-made whistle 
on a large scale, although, perhaps, the latter phrase is 
scarcely correct, since the smaller ones are really very 
small, not much bigger than a metal penholder ; but, on 
the other hand, some of the wooden ones are as much 
as thirt5'^-two feet in length, and most organs contain 
sixteen-feet pipes, which are certainly Goliaths among 
whistles. 

Before setting to work upon the pipes, we found it 
necessary to make a sort of scale or guage, which I fear 



OUR FIRST ORGAN. 135 

wras at best a very imperfect and incorrect one; but, 
as stated before, we had to hammer ideas out of our 
own brains, and to work with very scanty information. 
After all, however, it strikes me that nothing is ulti- 
mately lost by a lad having to gain information by deep 
thought and experiment. Grained in this way, it is 
generally of a durable character, which is not the case 
with the superficial information which is the result of the 
modern system of cram. 

We began quite at haphazard, by making a wooden 
pipe to represent the middle C of a pianoforte, or what 
I believe organ-builders call tenor C. I cannot recollect 
what guided us in making this pipe four feet six inches long 
by two inches each way, but possibly we asked some one 
who was supposed to know all about it. However, when 
we tried it with C on the piano, we found it about two full 
notes lower than it ought to have been, and we cut off 
first one inch, and then another, and found it getting 
nearer to the required tone. We then reduced it by 
little and little to four feet, and after some additional 
manipulation about the mouth, raising and lowering the 
block, which was fitted but not glued on tightly, we 
managed to get the note correct, if not exactly of good 
quality; but then we only tried it with the breath, and 
also the kitchen bellows. This was our sample of 
stopped diapason ; that is to say, it was not left open, but 



136 BOY ENGINEERS. 

was closed with a wooden plug-, without which it would, 
as we found by experiment, give a note an octave lower. 
The latter would be called in organ phraseology an open 
diapason, and in a large instrument the lower part of 
this stop would probably be of wood, and the upper 
octaves of metal. The principle of the pipes would be 
exactly the same, as the sound is caused by the wind 
striking against the thin edge of the lip, and setting 
a column of air in more or less rapid vibration in the 
body of the pipe, or Jlue^ as it is technically called. 

We found that for each note about the middle of the 
scale, the length of the pipes must diminish very nearly 
three inches ; but when the large pipes were reached, a 
difference required to be made of four or five inches. 
We heard afterwards, and subsequently proved, as usual, 
by actual experiment, that great variety of tone could be 
produced by varying the form of the flue. Thus a conical 
pipe did not sound like one with parallel sides, nor did 
a pipe with the largest part of such cone at the top 
sound like one with the largest part close to the lip. 
Again, we found it made a difference whether the thin 
edge of the lip was formed by bevelling off the pipe from 
the outside or the inside, and that the formation of the 
cap which covered or provided a channel for the wind 
also tended to modify the tone. 

The toning or voicing of pipes is indeed a very delicate 



OUR FIRST ORGAN. 137 

matter. Wood can be voiced to speak like metal, and 
metal to imitate wood so closely as to defy detection by 
any but the most critical and experienced ear. It is 
highly necessary that this skill in voicing, however, 
should be attained by those who hope to excel in organ- 
building, because it is requisite that precisely the same 
quality of tone should run through all the octaves of any 
particular stops. It is not sufficient that each note 
should be accurate in tune or pitch, but it must match 
the rest in what is called " timbre." A reedy note, for 
instance, would be intolerable to a musical ear if it 
occurred in the same stop which gave generally a flute- 
like tone ; and yet a skilful organ-builder can, if he 
choose, make the same shaped pipe give the two qualities 
of tone merely by the act of voicing it — i.e.., regulaling 
the force and direction in which the wind shall strike 
upon the thin edge or lip of the pipe. 

I shall presently have to say a few words upon the 
Becrets of voicing, but it was a performance we had never 
even heard of We made our pipes in the plain and 
simple manner which will be described here, and if they 
were not of first-class quality of tone, they spoke evenly, 
and were in good tune ; and this to boys like ourselves 
was a sufficient triumph for a first attempt. 

It would occupy a larger volume than the present, to 
detail the particular forms of pipes used in the present 



isS BOY ENGINEERS. 

day in organs of large size and variery of tone. It will 
be necessary to confine our remarks to the two kinds 
denominated "flute" and "reed" pipes, and of these 
sections and drawings are here annexed. Flute pipes, 
whether stopped — i.e.., fitted at the top or open end with 
a plug, which always raises the note of any given length 
of pipe an octave — or open, consist of a flue, a block 
with its air space, and a cap, to which must be added 
a foot, which is the turned pipe on which the larger one 
stands, and which carries to it the wind from the sound- 
board. 

I often smile now at the labour it cost us to make 
pipes, the mystery a pipe was to our minds, and the 
many failures for want of a little advice by which we 
were compelled to purchase our experience. Of course 
I am now writing as if we found no such difficulties, and 
merely stating rather how we subsequently and rightly 
made the pipes, after obtaining a pattern one and a little 
kindly-imparted instruction from a builder. 

The block, which is the first part to be considered, is 
merely, as the name indicates, a solid squared-up piece 
of wood, generally mahogany. To give the sizes of a 
standard pipe of this kind, the block A, fig. 12, is two 
inches long, one and a half wide, and one inch thick; and 
it has a piece cut out of it as shown, which it is easy 
to do with a fine saw and narrow chisel. This block 



ORGAN DETAILS. 



139 




Fig. 12 



/40 BO V ENGINEERS. 

must be planed true upon all sides, or the pipe made 
upon it will evidently be out of shape and useless. 

B is a section of the pipe, D a front view, C the front 
of the upper part aloue above the block, E the foot, Dr 
conical pi[)e on whicli the whole stands, and which is 
seen in section in the first figure, in which the blocli is 
also plainly seen at H. G is the cap that fits on in 
front, and is so cut away on the inside as to cause the 
wind to strike on the sharp edge or lip above it, which 
lip is made by cutting back the lower end of the front 
board, C. This cap is shown in perspective at K, where 
its form may be very easily understood. In the section 
of the pi{)e complete, B, the course of the wind can be 
traced without difiiculty. It may readily be imagined 
that by leaving the mouth of the pipe more or less open, 
enlarging or diminishing the wind channel, adding to 
or diminishing the width of the pipe in proportion to its 
length, and otherwise modifying its dimensions, great 
variety of tone can be obtained ; and after pipes are 
finished, the operation of voicing is carried out, which 
consists in opening out or diminishing the mouth, nicking 
the edge of the front board, and in various ways regulat- 
ing the size and form of the lip, so as to cause it to 
give more purity of tone. So readily are variations of 
tone attained by voicing and modifying these pipes, that 
an organ may have several stops or registers of wood — 



OUR FIRST ORGAN. 141 

I.e., several sets of wooden pipes — of which no two shall 
sound the least alike. A great deal depends on the 
shape of the flue or body of the pipe, which, of course, 
may be made, as here, with parallel sides, or with the 
boards formed to produce a more or less conical shape, 
and then again, the widest part may be at the top or 
below. 

As we did not attempt to make any metal pipes, I 
shall not describe them further than to say, that the flute 
or diapasons are made on precisely the same principle 
as those which 1 have detailed here, only no block is 
used, but the foot is continued to the mouth, and so 
made as practically to serve instead of a block, it being 
so arranged as to throw the stream of air against the 
lip. This lip is formed by bending the metal inwards, as 
may be seen any day in a penny tin whistle. These 
metal pipes are of all imaginable shapes as regards the 
flue, but the chief distinction recognised is, that some 
are reed pipes and others diapasons. This reed is a 
vibrating tongue of metal, which is tuned by a wire so 
arranged as to lengthen or shorten at pleasure the free 
end of the reed. We made a sort of reed pipe ourselves 
of wood, but it was a very troublesome job, and not very 
satisfactory when done. 

For this purpose we made our square flue pipe as 
before, but on the top of the block we fixed the reeds of 



142 BOY ENGINEERS. 



an old accordion, one in each pipe, so far as they would 
go : and having soon exhausted our stock, we made the rest 
of brass, hammered to give it hardness and spring. In 
fixing these, we had to hollow out the block, and so shape it 
as to enable the reed to project downwards, because the wind 
must strike on this projecting side. We could not there- 
fore manage without fir.-t riveting the tongues to a bit 
of thin iron, which we then fixed with small screws to 
the block. We tried various modifications of the plan, 
fixing similar free reeds inside the front board of the 
flue itself, and also in some other positions. We hoped 
to get a tone like a reed instrument, hautboy, or clarionet, 
for instance, but were only partially successful. 

In after years, when tirce and funds permitted us 
to launch out somewhat more freely in our mechanical 
work, we found the experience of our younger days, and 
especially ihe many blunders and failures of tnose days, 
of great value ; and our early attempts at organ-building 
developed, b/ practice, into a facility in work of this 
nature which enabled us to build several very fair organs, 
which we sold at a good profit. But I think none of 
these grander and more complete instruments gave us 
half the pleasure which we derived from that which we 
have been describing. 

The connection of the keys with the valves is, as may 
be supposed, almost precisely like that described in our 



OUR FIRST ORGAN. 143 



mechanical bird in the last chapter. It is illustrated in 
fig. 13. A is the key, pivoted at E, where there is a 
bit of brass between each key rising from a fixed board 
underneath them. This brass is merely a bit of sheet 
metal bent sharply at right angles like the letter L, so as 
to fasten to the board at the bottom, and receive a wire 
through the upright part; or it may be — for we subse- 
quently so arranged it — dispensed with, and replaced by a 
single brass rod lying above all the keys in a deep notch 
in their upper part, as seen at K in section, and at 
RXX, as seen from above. The rod is not absolutely 
continuous the whole length of the keyboard, as it was 
difficult to get it straight of such length, but we made it 
in three pieces, placing blocks, P, to take the ends of each 
as shown at XX ; the keys on each side being cut away 
where they occurred. The ends of each length were 
made smaller, as at H, this reduced part entering holes in 
the blocks. We found it necessary to put a second row 
of the steady pins, F, about the middle of each key, which, 
thus arranged, worked very freely and pleasantly. It will 
be noticed that the pull-down wires which open the pal- 
lets, V, of the sound-board pass at C through a piece of 
bent brass, and that they are fixed by a nut ; this enables 
them to be strained to exactly the proper degree of tension, 
which is of importance, as they should be just so tight as 
to open the valve when the key is lightly touched The 



144 ^OY ENGINEERS. 

black line under the wind-chest represents a plate of brass 
attached to allow the wires to pass through nicely-drilled 
holes in it. This is a suiSficientl}- air-tight arrangement, 
while at the same time the wires work more freely than 
they would in a piece of wood. 

There is not much more in the way of detail that needs 
illustration, as there is no difficulty connected with the 
bellows handle or leverage, by which the one stop was 
pulled out and pushed in. There was just a bell-cranked 
shaped piece of wood, Z, turning on a centre, and attached 
on one arm by a link to the slider, and by the other arm 
to the stop-drawer, H, a squared bit of mahogany with a 
turned handle. The method of attachment by screwed 
wires and nuts allows sufficient play to the parts to 
permit the slide and stop to move in a right line, instead 
of partaking of the circular motion of the ends of the 
crank. By an oversight the part A of the key has been 
drawn as if standing considerably above the rest of the 
key. This is only the case with the black keys. The 
rest are level, but broader at the end A. The set were, in 
fact, as stated, originally made for a pianoforte. The 
wire z of the stops must not be supposed to be merely a 
bit of bell-wire, but is stiff enough to push back the stop 
as well as to pull it out. This will only answer for a 
very light slide, for other mahogany rods must be used. 
Rollers and trackers are also necessary in organs, in 



OUR FIRST ORGAN. 145 

which the keys are not opposite their respective pipes, 
but we managed our small organ without them. 

Although in some of the details — as, for instance, the 
rollers just alluded to — ^organs are constructed differently 
to that here descrihed, it has seemed better to stick as 
far as possible to the original plan of our little book — to 
show how a pair of lads, using their own talents in their 
own way, triumphed over the difficulties met with, and 
succeeded in building an organ of small size but of fair 
tone, and capable of being played on with satisfaction to 
others as well as to themselves. In trying our hands, 
subsequently, at a larger concern, we altered many details 
which experience showed us needed improvement, and 
followed, so far as we were able, the plan of professional 
builders. 

In respect of the last sentence there is a lesson to 
be learned by experience. Boys and amateurs generally 
are somewhat inclined to follow their own devices, under 
the impression that their vvay of doing things is at 
least as good, if not better, than that of professionals. 
Let them be assured that nine times out of ten they are 
wrong ; but there is nothing like experience to teach them 
this. We boys (like other boys) were tolerably full of 
self-conceit, but we very often failed utterly, and still 
more often partially, in our attempts at the various 
handicrafts, for want of knowledge and information 



146 



BOY ENGINEERS. 



wbicli we would not condescend to ask, and after many 
tiresome experiments, due to our conceit, we always 
discovered that we had set about our task in an unwork- 
manlike manner, and we found ourselves at last working 
in the very way in which we should have worked had we 
at the first gone to some one who had been trained 
to that work, and condescended to ask him to show ua 
how to do it. A civil request of the kind is, moreover, 
seldom, if ever, r*^fused to a lad by a professional. 




Chapter VII. 



OUR HOUSE 




E now began, like lads whose brains were some- 
what like the troubled sea, to hanker after a 
job of a heavier class, and the circumstances 
which led to our choice were as follows : — 
We had both left school, and having by no means 
was'ed our time, we were now to have a year or two 
at home under a private tutor, who was thoughtfully 
selected for us, not for his scholarly attainments alone, 
but for his predilection for mechanical and scientific 
pursuits. A Cambridge graduate in mathematical 
honours, his special task was to instruct us in the 
theory of engineering, which his own knowledge of the 
practical details enabled him to do with more than 
ordinary facility, because if we failed to lay hold of any 



148 BOY ENGINEERS. 

mechanical law, he was often able by a simple experiment 
to explain it to us in a way that at once fixed it indelibly 
upon our minds. 

We had, of course, left our old workshop behind us, 
and not without a parting sigh of regret. I remember 
well how we went to pay a last visit to the scene of our 
many happy labours, and removing the old notice boards 
of " No admittance " and " Beware of the bull-dog," 
we substituted another, which stated that "the car- 
penter's shop and engineering establishment was per- 
manently removed to larger premises." 

These larger premises consisted of an orchard within 
the parental estate, in which we now proposed to erect 
a new workshop. This, however, was to be a combina- 
tion of shop and study, as we fancied it would assist our 
mental toil if it was carried on in close proximity to the 
scene of our various handiworks. For this purpose we 
determined to build a workshop with a study opening out 
of it, and by our father's kind liberality we were enabled 
to procure the raw material suited to our requirements. 
The only stipulation made was, that we should construct 
the building in a workmanlike manner, and not so as to 
be an unsightly object upon the premises. As I was 
now nearly nineteen, and my brother seventeen years of 
age, both at that time, moreover, in robust health, the 
actual labour in prospect did not terrify us. We were 



OUR HOUSE. 149 

early risers and kept regular hours, which of all things 
Bpecialiy adds time to one's days. Desultory work is, 
as we had seen with some of our companions, the 
greatest bane to success ; and the surest way to accom- 
plish life's various tasks in a thoroughly satisfactory 
manner is to set apart certain hours for each of them. 
We began our day, as boys ought to begin, by a quiet 
half-hoar with our Heavenly Father, then we studied till 
the breakfast-bell sounded punctually at eight. We then 
had an hour at our work, generally putting things 
straight, grinding and sharpening tools, and from ten till 
one we had a grind ourselves with our tutor. After 
early dinner we set to work upon our house, and gener- 
ally kept at it till six, when we had tea. In the winter 
months we had to arrange our time differently, but 
always learned the value of order and discipline, acquired 
partly at school, and partly under the kind but strict 
rule of a most worthy father. As a Navy man, he had 
himself learned to obey before he learned to command 
others, and our home life was to no small extent 
modelled on that of a man-of-war, nor, perhaps, can a 
better model be found anywhere. 

The foundations of our house were brick, and these 
were carried up all round two feet above the surface of 
the ground. This work we might have had done for us, 
b \t as we were intended for engineers, and had not yet 



ISO 



BOY ENGINEERS. 



determined to what department of that profession we 
should eventually turn, we thought a little practical 
masonry would at any rate do no harm, but rather give 
us an insight into details of work that we might some 
day have to superintend. 



I I 




l-IHHI-IHHHI-B-TT^ 

AHA* ^ ^ 



k h k k 



Hff.i> 



Fig. 13 is the ground-plan. It will be seen that, 
although we by uo means despised learning, we gave the 
workshop the place of honour as to dimensions, making 
it twelve feet by ten, whereas the study was only ten by 



OUR HOUSE. 151 



eight. But out of the latter we cut off a space of three 
feet for a lavatory, otherwise it would have been larger. 
This lavatory was an essential, as Land-washing cannot 
be very well omitted after workshop operations, unless 
grimy books are desirable. We had, however, no door 
between our workshop and lavatory, which in fact formed 
a lobby, the study opening out of it. The workshop 
was well lighted by two windows in adjoining walls, one 
being six feet long, the other three. The first of these 
was two feet six high, the latter two feet. The details 
of both will be found farther on. The study windows 
were both two feet high by three feet wide. We used 
nine-inch brickwork — i,e.^ our wall was one brick 
thick. 

The bricks always need to be so laid as to bond 
together in a proper manner ; the joints of one row must 
never coincide with those of the one next above or below. 
In one part of the front wall is illustrated the common 
manner of laying one row of bricks of a nine-inch wall, 
and in that just above it the headers A and stretchers B 
would lie in the opposite direction; thus bringing the centre 
of a brick over a joint AA ; this, it will be seen, will tie 
together the inner and outer faces of such a wall, which 
might otherwise easily split asunder in the central line or 
joint of the stretchers laid longitudinally. This is called 
Flemish bond, and gives to the front of the wall the 



152 BOY ENGINEEJiS. 



apjiearance so generally seen — the long and short sides 
of the bricks alternating. A small portion of the face ot 
Buch a wall is shown at CC, and will be recognised as the 
more common form. 

English bond is made differently. A row of headers is 
laid, and on them a row of stretchers, and so on alter- 
nately the whole height of the wall. In this case, the 
front face shows apparently alternate rows of short and 
long bricks, which certainly does not look so well. It 
may happen that the total length of a wall is such that 
nine -inch bricks, inclusive of joints, will not exactly 
reach from end to end. There must, consequently, be 
somewhere inserted half or quarter bricks. The joints 
are, however, always made to break, as it is called, or 
the whole would fail to be of that substantial character so 
necessary. It is specially an object with a bricklayer to 
make the joints overlap at the corners, so as to bond the 
four walls of a building thoroughly together, each serving 
as a support or buttress to the other. Thus if the first 
tier ends at the corner with two stretchers, he will lay a 
single stretcher only on the face of the wall, but behind it, 
instead of the second, he will lay the ends of two stretchers 
of the wall at right angles to it, thus turning the corner, 
and this will also have the effect of getting the bricks of 
that wall in proper order. The length of a brick is nine 
inches, the width four and a half, so that two headers 



OUR HOUSE. 153 



exactly cover the two stretchers beneath it. But it will 
be found upon trial that a second row will not break 
joint if a pair of headers are laid on a pair of stretchers, 
simply as described, although this is the way to build 
such a wall, but somewhere a brick must be split in each 
row lengthwise, which will bring all the joints right for 
that row or layer. In the same way in walls of a brick 
and a half thick — i.e.^ one laid flat as a header, and one 
laid flat as a stretcher alongside of it — it becomes 
necessary very often to cut a brick either across or 
lengthwise to bring the joints right ; and the necessity 
for window and doorways, which would interfere with the 
regular bonding, may compel two headers to take the 
place of a header and stretcher, or vice versd. A brick- 
layer used to his work never hesitates, but sees exactly 
where he can best place his half bricks, so as not to inter- 
fere with the general appearance of his work, but we had 
many a consultation on that score, as amateur masons do 
in such cases. 

We found the best way of learning the art, which, 
after all, is very simple, was to draw plans to scale, 
making the bricks the exact relative size, so as to find 
out whether they would bond ; and we also made some of 
wood also to scale, like those of a box of child's bricks, 
and with these we built up walls of various kinds of bond, 
BO that we soon had the secrets of bricklaying at our 



£54 £0Y ENGINEERS. 



fingers-ends. We also learned a good deal of plan* 
drawing by thus putting things dow:i on paper, and 
drawing everything properly to scale, a method we re- 
commend to all young mechanics. 

We carried the foundation, as I have said, two feet 
above ground, and below we dug out our trenches 
one foot deep, which brought four courses underground. 
We had good, dry, and firm loam to deal with, and below 
was gravel, so we found this to be quite deep enough to 
secure the stability of a small light building. There 
were eight courses above ground, each brick being three 
inches thick. When I say two feet above ground, I mean, 
therefore, eight courses, but with the mortar it was a 
little higher. 

The worst part of bricklaying was, we found, the 
effect which lime has upon the skin of the hands, which 
became dry, and would have chapped if we had had more 
of the work to do. This results from what chemists call 
the affinity of lime for water, which it absorbs. Thus all 
the natural perspiration, which keeps the hands moist 
and soft, is seized upon by the lime, leaving the skin 
in a perfectly dry and inelastic condition. 

Nothing shows this absorbent property of quicklime 
more than the process called slaking it to make mortar. 

Quicklime is carbonate of lime burnt. This substance 
occurs in various forms in large quantities in nature. 



OUR HOUSE. J 55 



Chalk, marble, limestone, oyster shells, and indeed most 
shells, with those beautiful stalactites found in caves in 
Derbyshire and elsewhere, are all carbonate of lime in 
varied forms. Ordinary limestone, forming hills and 
rocks, is the substance most commonly used for making 
quicklime, as it can be procured in almost all parts of the 
country. This is broken into large lumps and burnt in 
kilns, which are often holes dug in the side of a hill and 
lined with firebrick ; and sometimes are built wholly 
above ground, but the first is most convenient, as tha 
stone must be wheeled to the top or mouth and thrown 
in. When thoroughly burnt, the lime is drawn out 
at a hole made for the purpose at the bottom of the 
kiln. 

The heat drives off the carbonic acid, or carbonic anhy- 
dride, as it is now often called, in the form of gas, which 
is fatal to animal life. It sometimes happens that the 
lime-burners fall asleep too near the mouth of their 
kilns, and are quickly sent to sleep by the gas, and 
perhaps burned to death without awaking. It is a very 
heavy gas, and escapes, therefore, but slowly into the air 
above it. After this gas is driven off, the limestone is 
found to have acquired new properties, which, however, 
will not last long if it is left exposed to the air, as it 
will again pick up carbonic acid and become what it was 
before — viz., carbonate of lime. 



iS6 BOY ENGINEERS. 



In its new state it is called caustic lime, because it 
will burn and destroy animal and vegetable matter, and 
in this state it has the peculiar property of so entirely 
absorbing water as to dry it, so to speak ; for if a 
bucket of water is thrown on a heap of quicklime, the 
latter heats very much, steaming and smoking, and then 
all at once falls to pieces as a perfectly dry powder. 
It is in this state that it is used by the mason, being 
called slaked or slacked lime, and mixed with sand or 
road grit to make mortar. We had seen this operation 
verj' often, but until we ourselves performed it we had 
thought little about the why and wherefore. Now, 
however, our curiosity was roused, and our tutor kindly 
gave us the information here recorded, with much more 
about this and other gases which we cannot set down in 
these pages, as we must go on with the details of our 
house-building. 

The shallow flat-bottomed trench dug out to receive 
the foundations of course marked out the outline of the 
building. We had taken all possible care, therefore, to 
make the sides truly square to the ends. The partition 
between the workshop and study we intended to make 
entirely of wood, and here we only gave the wall half 
the thickness, building it with single stretchers, the 
joints overlapping as before. At the doorway the wall 
was carried but one course of biicks above the level of 



OUR HOUSE. 157 



the ground, to receive the cill, a piece of oak, into which 
the doorposts were mortised ; but where windows occurred 
we built up to the normal height, as the bottom of none 
of these was to be less than three feet from the CTonnd. 
Having tlius raised the foundations to the required height, 
we laid apou them the main timbers or wall-plates, into 
which all the chief uprights were to be mortised. These 
were seven inches wide and six thick, and all the mor- 
tise holes were marked and cut before putting them in 
place upon the walls. Where they met at the corners, 
they were half lapped into each other as seen at L, 
fig. 14. 

This drawing also shows the details of the timber 
framing and boarding of the back of the house, in which 
was the outer door. BB are the wall-plates last de- 
scribed. They are bevelled oflP at the upper face all round 
to throw oflP the rain. The uprights at the angles are 
six inches square, the rest, including doorposts, four 
inches by three. The wall-plates are laid flush with the 
wall on the outside, so that a ledge of brickwork remains 
of two inches on the inside. The uprights are placed 
BO as to be flu;sh with the top edge of the bevelled part, 
which is cut back one inch. The corners of the wall 
plates are pinned together by the tenons of the corner 
uprights, which go through the upper half lap into 
but not through the under one. The posts are not 



158 



BOY ENGINEERS. 



pinned sideways, but are held by the pinning of the 
uprights, CO, so as not to weaken the half lap joint 




GROUND LINE 

W\^. 14.— House Construction. 

unnecessarily. All the uprights are mortised into the 
upper wall-])late, IIH, which extends six inches on each 
side to take the outer rafter, and form eaves overhanging 
the end walls 

DD is a very essential tie-beam or diagonal strut, 
wholly preventing any side play, and stiffening and bond- 



OUR HOUSE. 159 



ing the whole firmly together. It is notched where it 
crosses the uprights, and nailed to them. The doorway is 
three feet wide, that between the study and workshop 
being two feet six inches. The outer one was made 
wider to allow of the easy admission of our work-bench, as 
well as the exit of various articles. It is rather awkward, 
after finishing some piece of work of more than ordinary 
dimensions, to find that you can neither get it out at the 
door nor at the window ; but we have known such things 
occur among other accidents of the workshop. A, shows 
one part finished by being covered by boards. There are 
several modes of doing this which must be considered in 
planning the timbers. The framing shown was designed 
for horizontal boarding, as here illustrated ; but if the 
boards were to be vertical, it would be necessary to intro- 
duce horizontal timbers — one below the top wall-plate, 
one just above the lower plate, and one running across 
halfway between them. We illustrate here the best method 
of boarding such outbuilding at A. The boards are put on 
80 as to lie quite level and horizontal. In this they are 
generally tongued and grooved, i.e., a groove is planed in 
the middle of the edge, into which is fitted a strip of thin 
irun or wood, and the other being similarly grooved, is 
forced up against it so that the tongue enters this also, 
and although the boards may shrink and slightly separate, 
no open space occurs between them. K shows a neat and 



1 6o BOV ENGINEERS. 



simple mode of placing upright boards, which are simply 
nailed on side by side, aud then a narrow strip or fillet, 
bevelled off or numlded, is nailed on where they join. But 
in this work the precaution should always be taken of not 
nailing these fillets to both boards, because if this is done 
and they shrink, the fillets will of necessity split. The 
best way is to. place the boards one-eighth of an inch apart, 
and to fasten the fillets by driving long thin nails into 
them down the middle, which, falling between the boards, 
and passing into the cross timbers behind, leaves each 
board perfectly free to shrink. At M is shown the 
method of weather-boarding. The boards here are feather- 
edged, that is, they are thick on one edge aud thin on 
the other, and they are made to overlap as shown, and 
nailed one after the other, beginning at the lowest, to the 
timbers behind, which are, of course, upright, as in the 
drawing of the house. 

Well-seasoned weather-boarding makes a sufficiently 
neat outside for barns, stables, and other outhouses, and 
in places where fir is grown it is very much used ; it is 
also made of oak, which is more durable, but more ex- 
pensive. Its chief fault is that it has a tendency to curl, 
60 that the upper surface of the boards becomes hollow 
and the lower convex. This is not, however, a serious 
defect, although it somewhat interferes with the regularity 
of the boardinsr. We nailed our boards on to meet at the 



OUR HOUSE. i6i 



edges, but attached them to the posts CC, which stood back 
the thickness of a board behind the level of the corner 
posts and doorposts. To these we nailed two-inch 
fillets for the ends of the boards to rest against, and we 
nailed them to these as well as to the other uprights, but 
with much slighter nails. The framing of the other sides 
was similar to that here delineated, except that the ends 
were gables, and that the framing hacj to be carried up 
above the wall-plate. We originally intended to thatch 
the roof, as aflfording on the whole the prettiest finish, but 
as at that time a stable had been re-roofed and slates 
substituted for baked tiles, we laid hands on these, and 
found no great difficulty in laying them in an efficient 
manner. We thus were enabled to dispense with the ser- 
vices of a professional thatcher, and to complete the house 
entirely without extraneous assistance. We bought a few 
new and bright tiles, which we laid round the eaves and 
on all the edges, and also laid them in a double row along 
the centre of each side. They gave a nice finish to the 
whole, and made the old grey tiles appear as if they had 
been specially chosen to complete the design. 

Had we lived a few years later, in these days of tarred 
felt, we might certainly have built our house for less 
money, and we could have nailed a few broad rough 
boards as rafters, and covered them with this useful and 
cheap material. Even the walls might have been so 



1 6 a BOY ENGINEERS. 

made with a similar lining within, and they would have 
made a warm and snug building. The smell at first might 
have been somewhat disagreeable, but we should not have 
cared much about such a trifle. 

There is some skill required, nevertheless, in order to 
use felt to advantage aud to make a neat job with it. In 
winter it is very stiff, and will crack if forcibly bent. In 
summer it is perfectly pliable and easy to use, but the tar 
is apt to come off aud mess one's hands a good deal. The 
surface, however, is usually dusted with fine sand to pre- 
vent the surfaces clinging together when it is rolled up 
for sale, and this renders it less sticky also to the fingers. 
The neatest way to use it is to cut it into lengths of not 
more than six feet, and to nail it to a level surface of 
boards in panels, running a fillet afterwards where the 
edges meet, and thus dividing it into panels. If the fillets 
are painted of any light and bright colour, the general 
effect will be exceedingly pretty ; but every part must be 
made, as true as line and square can make it. The boards 
upon which it is laid must be level, but otherwise it 
matters not what their shape may be. Outside slabs of 
fir, or any odds and ends having one flat side, will answer 
the purpose ; but unless, as a whole, they present a level 
surface, every edge which stands up will show a ridge, 
and mar the general effect. The boards, however, need 
not be put close together. They can be nine inches or a 



OUR HOUSE, 163 



foot apart, but should not be much more, or the felt will 
be apt to bag and appear loose between them. If a build- 
ing thus constructed is to be used simply as a worksho[), 
the timbers showing in the inside need not be covered, 
and, indeed, they are exceedingly handy. If, however, it 
is intended to use it as a study, or for any similar purpose, 
it should be lined inside with flush boarding, and painted, 
or, if preferred, it can be papered ; but in order to make a 
good job of it, it will be necessary first to tack cheap 
calico over the boards, straining it tightly. If this is not 
done, and the boards shrink, the paper will crack in many 
places. Having treated a boarded partition in this way 
with perfect success, we speak from experience. We did 
not, indeed, even line our study with boards, but we 
strained canvas over the beams, and thus got a surface suffi- 
ciently even to receive paper, and when finished it looked 
exceedingly neat. We carried the canvas up into the roof 
also — not to the angle, but to collar-beams about eighteen 
inches below. We thus contrived an efficient ceiling, 
which we covered with white paper ; all round the angles 
and up the corners we nailed strips of beading or mould- 
ing, 80 that, when all was finished, no one would have 
known that the room was merely of wood and canvas. The 
floor was boarded, but that of the workshop was made of 
clay, laid and rammed down as hard and level as possible. 
We must, however, now recur to some of the timber 



164 



BOY ENGINEERS. 



work. Fig. 15 represents the end of the <vorlrft/iop 
with the smaller window, showing the timber also ^i 




I I I I 



I t I — r 



I I I "^ 



I I I r 



I I I I I I 



■H^ 



III III 



I I 

~n — r 



Fig. 15.— Timber Framing. 

the gable end of the ruof, and the cross-timber ends or 
purlines, aaa^ running across from one gable to the 
other. EE is called a collar-beam, its use being to tie 



OUR HOUSE. 1 6s 



the sloping sides of the roof, FF, together, and prevent 
them from spreading sideways. GG is a tie-beam for the 
same purpose ; but the last is only put at the two outside 
trusses, as the triangular framework is called, whereas 
the collar-beams are added to several of the intermediate 
rafters in order to tie them together, and also to receive 
the ceiling laths when the ceiling is laid at this height. 
It is, however, generally at the level of the lower or main 
tie-beam, GG. 

In large roofs, perpendicular rafters are laid over the 
purlines to carry the laths upon which the slates or tiles 
have to be laid, and there are several of the main trusses 
intermediate between those of the gables. In light roofs, 
however, these are not needed, and the usual way is to 
nail the rafters direct to the wall-plate and ridge-piece, 
and to notch in or merely nail on the collar-beams, EE. 
from rafter to rafter, to carry the ceiling laths, or to assist 
in stiffening the roof timbers. We notched the purlines 
just 80 far into the rafters that they should act as stiff- 
eners, and also as laths. They were perhaps scarcely 
matters of necessity at all, and it would have saved us 
some trouble if we had put them inside the rafters instead 
of outside, where it was necessary to notch them on to 
bring them level with the slating laths. 

Owing to the way in which we had built the house, 
furnishing the walls with a horizontal wall-plate all round, 



i66 BOY ENGINEERS. 



hut projecting at the gahles to form level eaves, tno rfJ'cers 
did uot rest on the actual wall-plates, but on another beam 
notched down upon the projecting plates, as seen in this 
drawing, where the shaded part shows its ends. 

The construction of roofs of large span is calculated to 
call forth the highest professional skill of the architect and 
builder, and is a subject of peculiar interest. The main 
object aimed at is, to convert the outward thrust upon 
the walls iuto direct downward pressure, and to neutralise 
all tendency of any particular part to beud or sag, by 
straining pieces, ties, and struts. In fig. i6 we give a 
few sketches to illustrate this in simple outline.. 

ABC may stand for a pair of rafters, resting at B and 
C upon the wall-plates of the two walls, BH and CG. 
Any pressure on A, or on the lines AB and AC, will 
tend to make BC spread open, a becomiLg practically a 
joint, and ab^ ac, the legs of a pair of compasses ; and if 
the points B and C are rigidly fastened to the top of the 
walls, these latter will at once be thrust apart, and the 
structure will fall. To prevent the legs thus spreading, 
we may tie them by a cross piece at the line BC, which 
is thence called a tie-beam. This, moreover, may be 
replaced by an iron rod, as it is a true tie, and a rod of 
this metal will bear an enormous strain without stretching 
or breaking, if thus applied in the direction of its 
length. 



OUR HOUSE. 



167 



This tie-rod or tie-beam will thus effectually hold to- 
gether the lower ends of the rafters, and any weight now 
applied will merelT' press downwards upon the walls. If 
the rafters are very long in proportion to their size, they will 
be inclined to bend inwards at the middle of their lengfth. 
F. To guard against this we require a strut, FD, at right 




Fig. 16.— Roof Construction. 



angles to AC, and here a tie-rod is of no use. "We there- 
fore need an abutment for such strut somewhere at 
its lower end about the point D. Now if BC is a rod of 
iron, and we rest the end of such strut upon it, it will 
tend, of course, to make it bend or sag downwards, and a 



1 68 BOV ENGINEERS. 

rod, AD, becomes requisite, which will prevent this bending 
from taking place. 

I have supposed iron rods to be used as yet, but with 
timber a similar arrangement becomes uecessar}-. BC in 
this case will be a beam called, as before stated, a tie- 
beam, and AD an upright, called a king-post ; FU will 
be a timber strut. The lower the pitch of the roof the 
greater will be its outward thrust. If the ridge were at 
E, for instance, instead of A, the strain would be much 
greater. Thatched roofs are of very high pitch. Slate 
roofs much flatter, and a roof intended for tiles will 
be intermediate between them. When a tie-beam is 
inconvenient or unsightly, as in an open timber roof 
where no ceiling is required, it is replaced by a beam 
higher up, KF, called a collar-beam. This is dovetailed 
at the ends into the rafters to give it a stronger hold. 
It is not so effective, however, as a tie-beam, and, when 
used, the timbers are differently arranged; but each 
timber and iron rod of the complicated roofs now to be 
geen in railway stations and elsewhere is essential to the 
stability of the structure. Even timbers which form 
arches, or which, by their curved outlines, lend beauty to 
the design, will, on examination, be found to act as tie- 
beams, struts or braces. 

At MNO of this figure is given the usual method of 
notching a sloping beam or rafter into a tie-beam to 



ROOFS. 169 

enable it to receive the strain brought upon it, which is 
an outward thrust tending to make it slip along the beam. 
The abutment at effectually prevents such slip ; and in 
heavy work the joint would be either strapped over with 
an iron hoop or bolted through — generally the former, 
which does not weaken the timber, as a bolt-hole does. 

In our study as youthful engineers, under our tutor's 
guidance, we made many experiments upon beams and 
trusses, which also gave us some exercise in practical 
mechanical work, as we made models of mahogany, care- 
fully finished, with miniature straps and bolts, and rods 
of iron and steel. In the lower part of this figure is a 
sketch of a very simple but efficient mode of stiffening a 
beam or plank which is frequently used in roofs. Let BB 
represent the beam which is to support a pressure from 
above on its centre, where the weight W is placed. The 
tendency of this will be to bend the beam downwards and 
to draw its extremities from off the upright posts or walls, 
AA. This may be wholly prevented by placing under its 
centre a strut or block, S, and adding a straining bar of 
iron screwed at both ends, so that it can be tightened by 
nuts, NN, a bearing for these nuts being cut in the beam, 
80 that they shall lie truly at right angles to the bar and 
bed well and fairly upon the wood. All downward pres- 
sure at W tending to bend the beam is converted into 
strain upon the iron rod tending to stretch it lengthwise 



1 7 o JiOY ENGINEERS. 

— a strain which a very small rod will bear without 
yielding. An engineer's business is to calculate these 
questions of strain and pressure, and to determine what 
sized rods and struts and beams are needed, so as to 
render the structure as secure as possible without adding 
unnecessarily to the weight. This is specially necessary 
in designing roofs of large span. 

A ramble over any old house will serve to show the 
advnnce that has been made of late years in the art of 
building. Those huge oak beams which were then 
considered necessary, and which in turn needed walls of 
undue thickness to support them, are no longer used. 
We set our joists on edge, and saw up the large beams 
into half a dozen such joists, bracing them where 
necessary by intermediate struts to prevent side flexure, 
and we calculate the probable thrusts and other strains 
to a nicety, in order to economise the material, and 
consequently the expense of the building. No doubt 
this economy is sometimes carried too far. The reproach 
of many a modern town-house is, that its walls are so 
thin as to be absolutely unsafe to the inhabitants, and 
not seldom do we read of newly-built houses collapsing 
before being finished. This, however, is simply the 
result of false economy, and not of the want of skill in 
architects and engineers. Many of the houses alluded 
to are merely raised by speculative builders, who work 



ROOFS. 171 

by plans of their own, and whose sole object is to build 
houses cheaply for their own profit. In a well-con- 
structed building, every part bonds and supports the 
other, and the roof exercises no outward pressure tending 
to thrust asunder the walls which support it, but is 
simply a solid structure, bonded together at all points, 
which acts only as a superincumbent weight, exerting a 
force directly downwards, which the walls, if themselves 
perpendicular, are exactly calculated to bear. The bur- 
den is, in fact, carried by mother earth herself, patiently 
enough, unless she chooses to set her back up once in a 
way by an earthquake. 

Fig. 17 is a drawing of the timbers of the roof as 
they would appear when seen from above, but before the 
battens which are to hold the tiles are put on. These 
would, of course, run parallel with BBB, which is the 
ridge-plate at the highest part of the roof; AC is the 
ridge of the short bit of the roof which comes over the 
projecting part of the study, but ends at the ridge of the 
main roof; DD represent the wall-plates, or rather in this 
case the beam which overhangs the building, and receives 
the lower end of the rafters. 

AE and AF are diagonal timbers where the roofs 
meet, and to which the rafters both of the short roof 
and of the long are nailed, forming, when the tiles are 
on, a gutter at AE and AF, requiring to be leaded under 



172 



BOY EiVGJNEERS. 



the tiles to carry off the water. As C is the peak of 
a gable, the end of the projecting part of the building is 
what is called a pine end — i.e.^ triangular above the 









_B 




_D 
















_D^ 


B 




A 
































r 


Z 


/ 


\ 


k 


n'^ 


y 


^ 


V 


^ 


-/ 


\ 


' — ' 


' — ' 


















D 






^ 








« 


D 


D 












1 

c 



Fig. 17.— Roof Detail*. 

wall-plate. A hip roof, on the other hand, slopes back 
from the wall-plate to the ridge, leaving the wall, there- 
fore, quadrangular. The rafters in the drawing appear 
thin because they are set on edge, as is also the ridge- 
plate against which they abut, and to which they are 
nailed. 

This roof cost us a good deal of trouble, being a severe 
test of our capabilities as carpenters, but on the whole we 



OUR HOUSE. 173 



succeeded better than we might have expected. We 
made use of a dodge in fitting which we had seen used 
by carpenters — viz., a strip of thin board the length of a 
rafter, and another the length of the inclined timbers EF, 
which we could cut to the exact angle required at each 
end, and when we had once fitted this accurately to the 
wall-plates and ridge-piece, we could mark every rafter by 
it and saw them oflf, instead of having to try each one in 
its place again and again until it should prove to be 
correct. It is, of course, much easier to fit a thin strip 
of board than a rafter two inches thick, which, if long, is 
a heavy affair to manage on the try-try-again principle. 

The windows of our workshop were very simple affairs. 
"We merely nailed on the beam, at the top and bottom of 
the space left for that purpose, a few upright bars of wood 
rebated to receive the panes of glass. We did not rebate 
the side pieces, which were also of course two studs of the 
framing, but merely nailed on some quarter- inch stuff a 
little narrower than these studs, which had the effect of a 
rebate. We then cut and puttied in our strips of glass. 
In this, however, we showed a certain degree of wisdom 
which may be worth recording for the benefi:t of otliL-r 
boy-builders. We rightly conjectured that the windows 
of a workshop would be peculiarly liable to breakage, we, 
therefore, instead of long strips taking up the whole of 
each space, placed only small panes, making the upper 



1 V 4 BOY ENGINEERS. 

overlap the lower ones, so that in case of an accident, we 
could repair damages by inserting a new small pane only. 
The light was not in this way interfered with, and at the 
same time the wet was effectually kept out. An advan- 
tage in our wooden workshop which we discovered at a 
later date was the ease with which we could at any time 
extend our windows in either direction by removing a 
board or two and replacing it by another strip of glass. 
We ultimately extended our three-foot light to six feet, 
and our six-foot one to eight feet, besides adding 
another in the side wall at the place where we found it 
necessary to place another vice-bench. We also subse- 
quently converted part of the boarding into a shutter 
hinged on the top to lift up for the admission of air, and 
very advantageous we found it in the summer months 
when we were often glad to throw it open as wide as pos- 
sible; for though our work was play to us, owing to our 
fondness for mechanics, we by no means played at work 
when we were so engaged. 

Nothing now remained for us to do of any special diffi- 
culty. The laths or battens were nailed on at such a 
distance apart as to give the tiles a good lap, and the 
latter, after being fitted with wooden pegs (oak), were duly 
hung, which did not take us very long. The ridge tiles 
were then added, and these we bedded in plaster to make 
all weather-tight and snug. 



OUR HOUSE. 175 



The framing of the light partition between the study 
and workshop was a very simple matter, which we carried 
out after having roofed in the building. The doors were 
plain ledgers, i.e., upright boards bonded by three across 
them to carry the hinges and lock. We tongued and 
groved these boards together and ran a beading down the 
edges of each. 

The wooden floor of the study was laid on joists which 
rested upon brickwork at each end and in the middle. For 
this purpose we built up a wall inside the main one on 
two sides and one parallel to them along the centre, nine 
inches high above ground. Upon these we laid the joists, 
taking care that they rested fairly upon the walls, and as 
soon as we had laid the rows complete, we laid upon them 
one board and temporarily tacked it down to keep the 
joists in place, ready to receive the rest. We took as much 
care as possible to get the boards close together, but did 
not think it necessary to tongue and groove them. The 
way in which we got them close together, as we had no 
flooring cramp, was as follows: — We laid one board close 
to the wall true and level, and nailed it down securely to 
all the joists. We then did the same at the opposite 
wall, thus firmly securing all the joists together, and 
getting a solid foundation to work upon. Then we laid 
the next board, but before nailing it we drove into about 
four of the joists a stout short nail, three inches from the 



176 BOY ENGINEERS. 

edge of the board lying loosely in its place, and between 
these nails and the board we drove liard-wood wedges, 
which, bearing on one side against the fixed nails and in 
the other against the loose board, forced the latter up 
close against its predecessor. After nailing this down we 
drew the nails which we left standing an inch out of the 
joist, and repeated the operation with the next board. 

It is not necessary to describe the few remaining details 
of our house-building operations, and we shall conclude the 
chapter by a few words about the arrangement of our 
workshop after the building was wholly completed. 

The large window was honoured with the lathe for which 
it was specially designed. The small one had the carpen- 
ter's bench in front of it, next to which came a stout 
small bench of three-inch plank with a blacksmith's tail- 
vice. This was subsequently removed to a new window 
which we made, as already mentioned, as we found that we 
required more light when our filing operations were re- 
quired to be carried out with greater accuracy than in days 
of early attempts at this apparently easy, but in reality 
most difficult, work. Above the vice was fixed a drilling 
apparatus, which could be swung round out of the way 
when not required, and could be brought exactly over the 
vice, or over any desired part of the drilling bench. "We 
shall describe this in a subsequent chapter. 

The lathe tools had a special rack on both sides of the 



AN ORDERLY WORKSHOP. 177 

large window, in which they were ranged neatly according 
to size ; and by this time, in addition to the chisels and 
gouges, Ave had a fair stock of variously-shaped tools for 
hard wood and metal turning. Another rack over the 
carpenter's bench held the tools peculiar to that work, and 
planes occupied a couple of shelves above. Files and drills, 
and hard chisels, pliers, and screw wrenches, had a rack to 
themselves above the vice-bench. 

The nest chapter will be devoted to a description of our 
workshop fittings, as they existed after we had completed 
them ; and although we were not fitted up with any 
pretensions to stylishness, our workshop was far more 
complete in its arrangements than many others which we 
subsequently inspected, and which were more for show 
than for real work. 




Chapter VIK 




OUR WORKSHOP FITTINGS AND APPLIANCES. 

N a previous chapter I have spoken of the 
renovation of the French lathe -head and the 
subsequent addition of a C} Under poppit, 
instead of the simple and iueflScient screw in a 
block of wood which we had been compelled to use pre- 
viously. The latho-head with its guide screws was really 
an exceedingly good one. We found that it was very 
true, and had simply been laid aside and neglected, more 
than deteriorated by wear and tear. We therefore saw 
no necessity for throwing away money on the purchase of 
a better. The strap pulley, however, was incouvenient 
when we came to turn metal, because we could not re- 
duce the speed ; so we expended a little hoarded cash in 



LATHE DETAILS. 179 



the purchase of a grooved flj-wheel and crank shaft, and 
we then turned a neat mahogany pulley, and grooved it 
for a gut band. The wooden bed of our lathe we plated 
with iron, fastened with countersunk s'-'^ws and draw 
filed, to make it as level as possible, and to give it a better 
finish. We procured bars of two inches wide by a quarter 
thick for this purpose from the blacksmith, which, being 
rolled by machinery, were quite true from end to end. 
This made a very good bed, fit for a slide-rest, which we 
now made up our minds to purchase, although it was a 
somewhat heavy outlay, costing us, in those days, seven 
sovereigns. It was, however, a very good one, and twenty 
years afterwards it was still in almost daily use, and as 
good as ever. 

This was not meant for turning ornamental work, which 
we rather despised, but only to assist us in making models 
and other works in metal; and indeed we made a quantity 
of things, besides models of engines, including a capital 
set of chucks and various lathe fittings ; and long after- 
wards, when we discovered that ornamental turning needed 
the highest skill, and was therefore by no means infra dig. 
to a rising engineer, we made a very good slide-rest for 
that kind of work, and learnt to use it, too, with great 
eflBciency. Knowing the need of steadiness in a lathe, we 
braced ours at once to the window-sill with a couple of 
iron rods, so that it was immovable and free from vibra- 



i8o BOY ENGINEERS. 



tion, a very essential point when turning anything at a 
high speed or using an eccentric chuck. 

Our carpenter's bench was made to hold pieces of all 
shapes and sizes, and we took a great deal of pains to make 
it. The framing was of the ordinary kind, but planed 
to give it a better appearance than it frequently wears 
when made wholly of rough material ; but the top of it was 
of two-inch stuff, and was carefully faced all over, so as to 
present a perfectly level surface, which we took care to pre- 
serve. This is frequently not attended to in home-made 
benches, in which any stuff, planed or unplaned, is deemed 
good enough. The consequence is, that it is found im- 
possible to do good work with a plane, because the board, 
resting on an uneven surface, oscillates under the tool, and 
a wedge is needed here and there to keep it steady ; or a 
nail or two is ruthlessly driven into the bench to hold it 
steadily, which nail is sure to be forgotten, and either 
remains to tear a bit of skin off the workman's hand, or 
to notch the chisel, plane, or other tool. The way in 
which planing benches are often knocked about is what 
boys call " a caution " to behold. It should be as carefully 
preserved as a dining-room table. There is no necessity 
to spoil its level surface, for instance, by chucking down 
upon it any heavy pieces of iron that need a temporary 
resting-place. No need to bore holes with a centre-bit in 
work laid upon it without some spare piece underneath to 



WORKBENCH. i8i 



receive the point of the bit when it has passed completely 
through ; or to chop wood upon it so as to cut its surface 
gradually into mincemeat. These and similar errors we 
ourselves had to plead guilty to in our early days of ap- 
prenticeship ; but having learnt that it was just as easy to 
preserve bench and tools in good working condition, we 
duly reformed our manners and customs in this respect. 

The top of the bench being level and of thick material, 
we cut in it special holes and mortises to receive the 
tenons of certain fittings, to be described presently. The 
front board, of one-inch stufi", was also carefully planed, and 
fixed exactly at right angles to the top, and the usual 
carpenter's vice was fixed at the left-hand corner. This 
was made with two screws, instead of with one and a 
guide bar, as is often done. The outer movable board of 
the vice was of ash, one inch and a half thick, and its 
upper edge was made to come exactly level with the top 
of the bench, so that when it was necessary to plane up a 
narrow strip, it would hold it securely. 

At the right-hand end of our bench we fixed another 
kind of vice, which I think can be rendered clearly with- 
out a drawing. ' It consisted of a block of beech six inches 
long by three inches each way, with two short tenons below 
two inches long — one at each end. The block and tenons 
were all of one piece. 

We took, in short, a block five inches deep and three 



BOY ENGINEERS. 



fchiclv, and marking it round on all sides at two inches 
from the face, which was to be the downward one, and 
also marking across at two inches from each end, we cut 
out the piece between the two last markings, so as to 
leave the tenons at each end. These tenons fitted accu- 
rately into two mortises cut in the top of the bench, so 
that when placed in them the appearance was that of a 
simple block six inches long by three square standing on 
the bench, its long sides parallel to the front and back 
of the bench. It was, however, fixed securely by the 
tenons. Lengthwise through the block was passed a 
screw three-quarter inch in diameter. It was our old back 
poppit screw, but the end was filed off square and flat, 
instead of being left with a point. In a line with this 
block and screw were a row of similar mortises at equal 
distances, into any two of which therefore the block 
already described would fit at pleasure. To complete the 
apparatus, there were other blocks, with precisely similar 
tenons, but only one to each, and these blocks were but 
three inches, and some two inches, in length, instead of six. 
To form a vice, therefore, all that was necessary was to 
put the screw-block into place, and one of the others in a 
mortise, at about such a distance from it as the article 
required, and then to fix the latter when placed between 
them by a few turns of the screw, interposing a bit of 
hard wood to protect the surface of the work from the end 



BENCH FITTINGS. 183 

of the screw. Of all our bench fittings, we never found 
one more serviceable than this, which we used to hold 
work for mortising, and as a clamp for work glued, and 
for a multitude of other purposes which need not be 
enumerated ; among others, for holding up pieces which 
required to be planed on the edge, and which were not 
so thin as to yield to the end pressure thus applied. We 
rightly named it '' our universal vice." 

Another vice or bench appliance of great use in plan- 
ing pieces too thin to hold in any other way, consisted of 
a block of wood similar to the last, but sawn about three- 
fourths of its length through, so as to form a kind of 
spring-clip ; through this a screw was placed crosswise, so 
that when turned by a short bar, it brought together the 
two sides of the wood which the saw cut separated. This 
acted, therefore, as a vice for very thin laths, which were, 
of necessity, held at the end from which the plane started 
on its way, i.e.^ the right hand, so that the force of the 
plane only tended to stretch the strip, and not to bend it. 
All thin laths need to be planed in this way. We also 
had blocks with a deep saw-cut, or rather deep shallow 
groove made by two saw-cuts, one-quarter inch apart on 
the upper surface, in which thin slips could be fastened 
by a wedge, and various similar contrivances for holding 
boards on edge, cylindrical and other shaped pieces, which 



1 84 £0y ENGINEERS. 

often saved us much time. In short, the mortise holes 
and blocks were as useful as they were cheap. 

We also had a couple of round holes to take the stem 
of our bench hooks or bench holdfasts, of which one was 
of the old pattern, the other made with a screw to hold 
down work. We had also a carver's screw, a most useful 
contrivance. It is an iron bolt with a screw and bow-nut 
at one end, like those used to secure lathe poppits, and a 
short conical screw at the other. The latter is screwed 
into the block of wood to be carved, and the bolt being 
passed through a hole in the work-bench, is secured by the 
bow-nut and a large washer underneath. Then we had 
also for use with the tenon saw a short strip of ash, with 
a piece at each end projecting an inch, but in opposite 
directions. One of the^e rests against the edge of the bench 
upon which it is laid, while the other prevents the strip 
of wood from escaping under the action of the saw. Its 
form was like the letter Z, but the central line much 
longer in proportion, and at right angles to the two other 
lines which make up that letter. We had, of course, the 
usual planing stop in addition to these other contrivances, 
a very much better form of which is now made wholly of 
metal, and getting into very general use. 

The next workshop fitting which it is necessary to 
describe is our filing or fitting beocli. This was of three- 
inch j)lank, fitted to the wall by a pair of bolts going right 



CASTING. 185 

through two of the joists, and screwed up with a nut and 
washer on the outside. It was also supported by two 
legs driven into the ground, and then notched into the 
bench and fixed with screws. The tail-vice, with chops 
three inches wide, was fixed to tho front of this, the leg 
being let into a short pile of oak driven into the ground. 
It was therefore very firm, and stood just so high as to 
bring the vice chops on a level with the elbow, which is 
the best height for accurate work with the file. Under 
the bench was fitted a strong drawer, to contain various 
odds and ends, such as screw taps, and dies, drills, small 
bolts and nuts, and the thousand and one etceteras of a 
smith's shop. We had not, however, at the time, any 
forge, and although we afterwards had a portable one, we 
only used it for soldering, brazing, and doing light jobs. 
We found it cheaper as well as better to get our forgings 
as well as our castings done for us by those regularly 
trained to that work. We did, indeed, now and then 
cast small articles of brass, using blacklead crucibles, with 
coke as the fuel ; but we so often found these articles turn 
out badly, that, as a rule, we did nothing in the way of 
founding. Still we could bend and weld light ironwork 
with the forge, as well as heat rivets, alter the shape of 
slide-rest tools, make an occasional carrier for the lathe, 
and so forth. Our forge proved, therefore, very con- 



1 86 BOY ENGINEERS. 

venient, but was never admitted into our workshop, but 
used out of doors or in an old shed. 

Our drilling ap})aratus was at first merely the ordinary 
blacksmith's brace pressed down by a lever overhead, with 
a weight hung on at the end of it — a clumsy affair, still 
to be met with at smith's forges in some country places, 
and certainly effectual, as is proved daily by the work 
done by its aid. It was, however, very much of an eye- 
sore, and took up a good deal of room. We therefore 
replaced it by an upright rod of iron, and a sliding arm 
with a screw passing through it, to give the necessary 
pressure to the brace. This upright rod was fixed by 
being made to pass through the vice-bench and rest upon 
a collar, which prevented it from falling quite through, 
but allowed it to swing round. Underneath the bench it 
had a washer and nut, and a similar washer was let into 
the top of the bench where the rod passed through it. Near 
the top it passed through an eye-bolt, which, in its turn, 
was screwed into one of the upright studs of the workshop ; 
then the rod, which was of round iron one inch in dia- 
meter, was very securely fixed in an upright position close 
to the wall. The arm which projected from it was of 
flat bar iron half an inch thick, with a boss or enlarged 
part at each end. This, when fixed, was so placed that 
the edges were above and below, and the broad or flat 
parts sideways. The iron in this direction was an inch 



DRILLING, 187 

wide. It was made thus stiff, because it was necessary 
that it should stand a good deal of strain without bending. 
Both bosses were bored through — the one to slide up and 
down the upright bar, the other to receive a screw six 
inches long, with a hole in the lower end, into which 
the upper pointed end of the brace fitted when in use. 
This end was case-hardened, as was also the point of the 
brace. We have not drawn the latter, as it is a tool 
well known to boys of a mechanical turn, being found in 
every blacksmith's shop in the kingdom. 

Those were not days of twist drills, nor of the fluted 
drills, which are equal to them, if not superior, but we had a 
set of common diamond-pointed ones made to fit the brace, 
which was not our own handiwork, and we soon learned 
how to make and temper them ourselves — an accomplish- 
ment always of value to the mechanic, old or young. It 
is here, indeed, that the generality of amateurs lag behind. 
They require sets of drills, reamers, countersinks, and 
such-like ; and if they need to make a hole for which they 
have not a drill of precisely the required size, or if 
they chance to break a tool of this description, they are 
at a stand-still till they can buy a new one. Not so the 
workman. He simply puts his broken drill into the fire, 
and with a few strokes of the hammer remodels it, mak- 
ing it smaller or larger to suit the job in hand. Then he 
tempers it, and grinds it, and in a few minutes is dili- 



1 88 £0V ENGINEERS. 



gently at work. A chance breakage is, in fact, to a 
good workman, of no sort of importance, but with him it 
is not so frequent as with less skilful hands. 

When first we tried to make a drill or two, as we had 
seen the village blacksmith do, we burnt the steel, which 
forthwith crumbled under the hammer, instead of takins: 
its proper shape, as we expected. We then found that a 
white heat would not do at all, but that we must not raise 
the heat beyond what produced a bright red, and that we 
could shape our work at this temperature without breaking 
it. Then we heated it to a bright red and quenched it, 
ground it to a nice bevel, and broke it short off at first 
trial. It was a great deal too hard and as brittle as glass. 
Then somehow we learned that it was, as a general rule, 
necessary to let down the temper of drills, taps, reamers, 
and indeed of most other tools subject to strains or to 
sudden blows, by first heating and quenching, and then 
heating them again to a stated teni])eiatnre known by the 
colour which the metal takes under the influence of 
oxidation. As the temperature rises the steel becomes 
softer, and when at the desired degree it is suddenly 
quenched again in water or oil. In this way we found 
that we could make steel so hard that no file would scratch 
it, and from this let it down as we pleased. Drills for 
metal, unless for drilling steel, answer when the deep 
straw colour is attained, or when this is beginning to 



TEMPERING STEEL. 1S9 

change towards a blue. The shank of the drill should be 
then tempered, even if the point is left hard. This may 
be done by laying the shank on a bar of red-hot iron and 
watching the colour as it spreads from that point up and 
down the surface of the drill. Screw taps, again, being 
subject to torsion, or a strain tending to twist them, need 
very careful tempering, especially if not very well made, 
as they then cut with difficulty, and require more power 
to work them. 

"We found out such matters as these chiefly from numer- 
ous failures, which often teach more than success ; but we 
also learned the use of our eyes and ears, and picked up 
many a wrinkle while innocently watching the work of 
various tradesmen, but especially that of the blacksmith, 
who, in country villages, combines the trades of farrier 
and shoeing-smith, tinman, brazier, and machinist. In 
short, to a skilful village smith nothing seems to come 
amiss in the way of metal work, and some are veiy skil- 
ful in making axes, billhooks, and edge tools, which stand 
work a great deal better than those ordinarily purchased 
at tool-shops. Of course, if it comes to a question of 
appearance, the tool-shops carry the day, for at these you 
may buy axes beautifully polished for a part of their blades, 
and the rest got up with a wonderful blue, which renders 
the whole tool marvellous to behold ; and it is a far greater 



CQo BOY ENGINEERS. 

marvel if a tool thus finished proves of any value at all to 
the buyer. 

Of trestles, sawing-horses, and low stools of thick stuff 
with stout legs, for cutting mortises upon, it seems hardly 
necessary to speak, yet we have known these conspicuous 
by their absence in many a workshop of no mean preten- 
sions, in which, if a board required to be sawn off, there 
was a hunt for something upon which to rest it. The 
best framed trestle we had was made after the fashion of 
the Roman capital letter A. I fancy we had seen it 
somewhere, for I doubt if we invented it ourselves. 
The board to be sawn (lengthwise) was slipped through 
above the cross piece in the centre, and the legs of the A 
were pushed slightly outward, so that the end of the plank 
rested on the floor behind the workman, while the other 
end to be sawn projected, and was held up by the legs of 
the trestle. As the sawing proceeded, the board was 
slipped further through. This device holds the board in 
the most convenient position possible, and is as easily 
made as an ordinary sawing-stool. When the board to 
be sawn was thin and of any great length, we found it 
necessary to place an ordinary stool in front of our alpha 
horse to support the end, which otherwise would be found 
careering and prancing up and down at every stroke of 
the saw, as if in mortal agony, while its sides were being 
split, but not with laughter. Of all work which boys are 



SA IVS. 19X 

inclined to be shy of, sawing stands pre-eminent. In the 
first place, they find it very difficult to drive a straight 
course; and in the. next place, it is uncommonly hard work; 
and we often see boys splitting a board instead of sawing 
it, by which, as the crack seldom runs straight, they are 
sure to waste material. This laziness we never allowed 
ourselves to be guilty of. We kept a half-rip and a hand- 
saw in good order, and soon found arms and back grow 
used to the work, and we made nothing of the labour of 
sawing a three-inch plank twenty feet long from end to 
end. In these days, however, one has not very much to 
do with such heavy work, as it is easy to get at the saw- 
mills any description of scantling, and the circular saw 
will rip up such a plank as alluded to in about a 
minute. 

Talking of circular saws reminds me that I have not 
spoken as yet of this handy and not very costly addition, 
which we found means to make to the fittings of our 
workshop. In those days such articles were not so easily 
obtainable as they have since become, and we bought a 
saw of six inches diameter and made a stand for it our- 
selves, turning the spindle also upon which it was fixed. 
A circular saw is only a round disc of steel with a central 
hole in it, the teeth being cut round the edge. A spindle 
with a shoulder is passed through the hole, and a washer 
placed on the other side, which is forced up against the 



i9< BOY ENGINEERS. 



plate by a nut. Upon the spindle a pulley is fitted for a 
strap, and the whole is fitted up in other respects like a lathe, 
the saw being driven by a fly-wheel, crank, and treadle. 
A flat table, however, takes the place of the lathe-bed, in 
which is a narrow slit to allow the saw to project through 
it nearly to its axle ; and upon this is laid the work to be 
sawn. A six-inch saw will cut, therefore, only about two 
inches, owing to the thickness of the spindle and its 
collar and nut ; but a piece of wood two inches thick we 
found quite hard enough work for our legs ; and, indeed, 
we seldom used the saw upon more than one-inch stuff, as 
neither of us, in spite of our ingenuity, had been able to 
make for ourselves a steam leg to drive the machine. 
Upon the saw-table there was a stop or guide, a strip of 
wood an inch thick standing up parallel with the saw, 
which could be adjusted to any distance from it. This 
enabled us to cut strips of any width all true and all 
exactly alike. We had also angular guides for mitres, 
bevels, and such-like. 

The handiness of a circular saw can hardly be over- 
estimated. For any heavy work it is indeed useless when 
worked by the foot, though capable of any amount of 
work when steam power is used to drive it. But for light 
work it is invaluable, and no workshop can be considered 
complete without one. We had the spindle mounted 
between two pointed and case-hardened screws under the 



GRINDERS AND BOBS. 193 

table, and we could remove this saw and replace it by 
one for cutting metal, to saw off ferrules from brass tubes 
and such-like. We also had other spindles fitted like a 
knife-grinder's machine, with small grindstone and emery- 
wheels, commonly called emery-bobs, and also with polishers 
or glazers covered with leather. The machine, therefore, 
was of somewhat extensive use; and one day, when we had 
left our door unlocked, the knife-boy made free to enter 
our sanctum, and try our precious buff-wheel as a cleaner 
of knives — an operation which was so successful that we 
took care the experiment should not be repeated. We 
did, however, make a special knife-cleaner, which remained 
some years iu constant use. 

There is a mode of using a circular saw which we 
imagined to be an invention of our own, but whether or 
no it was so I cannot now determine. We raised the 
table by adjustable wedges, so that the saw might project 
only a very little above it, and we then used it for cutting 
rebates, such as are made in picture- frames and sashes to 
hold the glass. We first cut the strips with the table 
lowered down to its normal level, and then using the 
parallel guide, we raised the table and made a saw-cut 
from end to end of the piece, which we met by another 
at right angles to it. The two cuts of course removed 
a square slip of the wood, and so formed the required 



194 BOY ENGINEERS. 

rebate. We used it thus for picture-frames, of which we 
made several, as for many other purposes. 

Long since that time this mode of rebating frames 
has, I believe, become general, and the circular saw is 
put to every kind of work which it is capable of execut- 
ing, as well as to work which no one would have supposed 
could be done by its means. Revolving cutters, by which 
clock wheels are cut, taps grooved, and drills fluted, are 
but circular saws of various sections and of small size, 
which are, many of them, driven at a terrific rate, and 
make splendid work in skilled hands. Of these we made, 
however, no use in connection with the machine alluded 
to, although we learned to use them with our lathe after 
we became possessed of a slide-rest. 

"We may here mention, for the information of mecha- 
nical boys, who like to know how all sorts of things are 
made, even though they themselves may not be trying 
their skill at mechanical work, that the revolving cutters 
are used extensively for making the various parts of sew- 
ing-machines, some of which are of so peculiar a form 
that, I daresay, many have wondered how they could be so 
beautifully made by means of files and ordinary methods 
of work. In the Government factories, also, where small 
arms are made, the same tool is in extensive use. In 
cutting V-grooves in the edges of brass slides for eccen- 
trie chucks, cutters of that section are adopted, and the 



TOOL CUPBOARD. 195 



work is not only done very rapidly, but with a correctness 
scarcely to be attained in any other way, although, before 
such appliances were known, the skill and perseverance 
of the filer and fitter proved equal to the task. It is, how- 
ever, very difiicult to file a groove accurately along the 
edge of a plate, and it will prove a rather hard trial of the 
mechanic's skill to do it. Cutters can now, however, be 
had at all good tool-shops, beautifully made, and of al- 
most any section; and any young engineer who possesses 
a lathe and a slide-rest ought to add a cutter spindle, 
and learn to use it. 

When our stock of better-class chucks was extended, 
partly by purchase and partly by home manufacture, we 
had a glass cupboard, or rather a cupboard with shelves 
and a glass door, in which to keep (and show) them. 
We found that unless they were put into some such 
receptacle, the dust of the workshop made them exceed- 
ingly dirty, and mixing with the oil, got into the movable 
parts, and did, in course of time, real damage by grind- 
ing such parts, and rendering them loose. Some of our 
best tools we also, for a similar reason, kept in drawers 
and boxes, as we had learned that good tools were worth 
careful preservation, and would not do best work unless 
they were thus preserved. Our big grindstone for 
ordinary shopwork had a place in the workshop away 
from the lathe. It was about two feet in diameter, 



196 BOY ENGINEERS. 

mounted accurately on its spindle, and fitted witli a crank 
and treadle, besides having a handle that could be put 
on at pleasure for grinding axes or heavy work. There 
was a water trough below, which was lowered when not 
in use, so as not to keep the stone wet in one part, and 
also a cap or hood, to prevent water from being thrown 
about the workshop, or aLuoying the workman by splash- 
ing his face and clothes. It is now the fishion to use, 
in place of grindstones, revolving emery wheels, going 
at perhaps 1500 turns a minute, and having a stream of 
water constantly running over them to keep the tool 
from losing its temper. Even with this precaution it is 
difficult to prevent heating the steel, which, if the stone 
is run dry, may be made red-hot in a few seconds. These 
emery wheels are also used to take off the hard scale or 
crust from castings, which is so detrimental to tools, 
and which has to be removed by the tedious processes 
of pickling and chopping, unless these emery wheels are 
brought into use for the purpose. They were, however, 
quite unknown when we built our shop, and were, there- 
fore, not among its fittings, and only quite recently have 
they become common. 

Such was our workshop as designed and made by us 
with no professional assistance whatever. To this day 
I look back upon it with pride, if not with affection. 
It is one of those possessions that make an impression 



SCHOOL DISCIPLINE. 197 

on the mind of a lad not easily effaced, as it was 
essentially an integral part of the home of our boyhood 
and early manhood. Even its association with the study 
did not take in the least from the charm which it 
possessed ; in fact, that study was entirely our own device 
and our own suggestion. I have, indeed, heard some 
boys speak disparagingly of their school-days and school - 
work, with its strict discipline and restraint, but it is 
a feeling of which we personally never partook, even in 
our youngest days. As to discipline, we had always been 
trained to yield implicit obedience to those who had charge 
of us, whether at home or at school, and it was cheerfully 
rendered. Moreover, as we advanced beyond those 
earlier studies of childhood, which are, of course, always 
more or less tedious and disagreeable, we liked learning 
for its own sake. We were both naturally of inquiring 
disposition, and longed to escape from the trammels of 
boyish ignorance, which we rightly believed kept us back 
from a good deal of intellectual enjoyment. We won 
prizes, but we did not in reality work for them; they 
fell to our lot as a matter of course, and were appreciated 
not as something to show, but as mines of valuable 
information ; for they were always well chosen, and of an 
interesting character. When, however, we rose higher 
in the school, we did work for the prizes, because the 
elder boys were, by a wise arrangement, allowed to select 



198 BOY ENGINEERS, 

prizes of a certain fixed value according to their 
respective tastes, and even to add from their own pocketa 
if the prize selected was beyond the money assigned to 
them. I need hardly say that our choice was invariably 
a book connected with mechanical arts. 

In speaking of what we did, and how we worked at 
what was first a mere boyish hobby, but ultimately 
became the life's business of one of us, and for a time 
of both, I cannot help feeling that I am to some extent 
egotistical. Everything recorded of necessity bears this 
stamp. It is nothing but ego and ille alter ego. I shall 
conclude this chapter, therefore, with a record of a very 
dear father, who, if he had a fault, was only too indulgent. 
He too was naturally mechanical, but in another direc- 
tion. With him the sea and the Navy, to which he 
belonged, and which he certainly adorned, was every- 
thing. As boy and man he was for ever making models 
of ships; and well do I remember how patiently he 
worked, and with what simple appliances he executed all 
with a precision and neatness hardly to be excelled. I 
have several of those models now, and though I have 
seen many of similar character, I never saw any better 
made. The hulls were not merely carved out of a 
solid block, but built up from the keel rib by rib and 
plank by plank, all riveted with brass wire nails or 
fastened with copper studs and bolts. It is still a 



MODELS. 199 

matter of wonder to me how he curved those small planks 
so gracefully round the bows and under the quarters, and 
how he prevented the board from splitting. I believe, 
however, that the holes were all drilled with one of 
the bow-drills used by watchmakers. Then, again, 
masts and spars were rounded entirely by hand, and were 
finished to perfection ; and there was the miniature 
wheel with its facings of brass, the binnacle with its 
compass, the hatchways and gratings and hammock 
nettings, each and all as complete as skill could make 
them, and a sailor's critical eye could plan them. Even 
the sails, I believe, were my father's own handiwork, 
beautifully stitched and finished as they were ; and the 
little blocks with running sheaves in each, double or 
single, as in a real man-of-war, were cut and carved with 
the same untiring patience. Alas I those ships are 
things of the past. Wooden walls are fading away 
before the iron-built ugly monitors, and perhaps the old 
Bailor, of which my father was a fine type, is also passing 
away. 





Chapter IX. 

ONE OR TWO ENGINES. 

UR house completed and shop fairly furnished 
with the necessary tools, our ambition centred 
on a steam-engine, as, I believe, is almost 
always the case, sooner or later, with lads of a 
mechanical turn. This is not unnatural, for whatever 
other machine or model of machine may occupy the at- 
tention from time to time, the steam-engine is at present 
the grand prime mover, without which they would be prac- 
tically useless. If we could have managed to bore a larger 
cylinder, and to make or procure a suitable boiler, we 
should have tried our hands upon one of a size to do use- 
ful work — to turn our lathe, for instance, when we were 
engaged in any heavier work than usual. As it was, how- 
ever, we were restricted in various ways. Our pockets 



STEAM-ENGINE. 201 



were not over-heavy, our mechanical appliances limited, 
and we could not manage to bore out a cj'linder of the 
size that would be needed for the above purpose. 

We eventually decided on a cylinder three inches long, 
with a bore of 1^ inches, which was as much as our lathe 
and slide-rest were likely to do in a satisfactory manner. 

We were saved, at all events, one great trouble, namely, 
the construction of patterns for casting. We happened 
to have amongst our acquaintances a member of a noted 
firm of ironworkers, whose foundry was about ten miles 
off, and from him we obtained for a nominal sum all the 
castings of this engine complete. These consisted of 
cylinder and its covers, valve box and cover, piston and 
eccentric, guide bars and pillars, all of iron, eccentric 
straps of gun-metal, bearings for the crank shaft of the 
same metal, iron fly-wheel and bed-plate. The forginga 
we found it easy to obtain in our own village ; but these 
were very few — merely the forked connecting-rod, and 
one or two odds and ends. The boiler we left as a matter 
for consideration after the engine should be completed. 

Before setting to work upon the engine, however, we 
endeavoured to gain such a complete insight into the 
theory of steam as a motive power as should give 
US greater interest in our undertaking, and serve to 
lay a sound foundation for future studies. It is here, I 
think, that boys usually fail. They exercise their ingenuity 



so Y ENGINEERS. 



upon the fabrication of machines without any real know- 
led o-e of the why and wherefore, and consequently, if ever 
finished, the models serve merely as toys, which teach 
them nothing, and are soon cast aside, as the interest in 
them ceases. 

I don't mean to say that we then moralised more than 
other lads, but as our profession was to be tliat of 
engineers, we took all pains to learn theory and practice 
at the same time, and thus gained a good deal of know- 
ledge in an exceedingly pleasant manner. 

To begin with the water in the boiler, out of which, by 
the aid of heat, we have to procure the steam required 
for our purpose. Water is not a simple element, as was 
formerly supposed — that is, it may be disintegrated into 
two separate substances, which, strangely enough (for we 
should not have conjectured this), are gases, which are 
themselves invisible to the sight, and have nothing about 
them suggestive of moisture. The one gas is oxygen, the 
other hydrogen, which obtained its name from the fact of 
its being an important constituent of water, as our young 
Greek scholars will at once understand ; while oxygen was 
named from being the supposed originator of acidity — 
like some boys, it is a " pickle." These two gases, when 
mixed together in certain proportions, are very ticklish 
customers to deal with. Looking exceedingly innocent 
and harmless — when in a glass vessel, the latter appears 



CHEMICAL EXPERIMENTS. 20^ 

to be empty — they are highly explosive, and only await a 
chance spark to make them go off with a bang. Hydrogen 
gas alone will not do this, but will burn with a faint blue 
flame, which, however, is intensely hot, and will, if a 
stream of oxygen is driven through it, melt the most re- 
fractory substances in nature. 

A mixture of hydrogen and oxygen when exploded 
produces water ; the two gases, if in suitable proportions — 
viz., 8 of oxygen to 1 of hydrogen — combining wholly, and 
leaving no residue. If these proportions are exceeded in 
either, the excess will simply remain unaltered. In a 
mere experiment on a small scale, with the gases in tubes 
or other small vessels, the result in water will only appear 
like dew upon their surfaces, so that boys who perform 
the experiment need not expect, as we did, to see a tube 
half-full of water as the result, because the gases thus 
combined take up infinitely less space than they did 
before. 

In the vast laboratory of nature, chemical actions go 
on upon a scale of which the student has no conception, 
but I do not know that the explosion and combination of 
these gases occurs naturally ; the Creator having furnished 
our Globe at once with this compound substance, which is 
essential to our life and happiness. 

Now this compound is itself, under certain conditions, 
explosive — a fact upon which experiments have yet to be 



204 BOY ENGINEERS. 

niiide, and which deserves more attention than it has yet 
met with. You may not unfrequently have noticed that a 
tea-kettle boiling over on a hot kitchen stove will keep on 
jumping as the drops run down its sides, get under it, and 
come in contact with the heated metal below. If the iron 
is sufficiently hot, the water will, on reaching it, separate 
immediately into globules, which do not at once become 
vaporised, but hop and roll about, till, with a slight ex- 
plosion, they become instantaneously dissipated. The fol- 
lowing quotation from Lardner's " Natural Philosophy '* 
will suffice to give all the information necessary upon 
this point. The paragraph is entitled " Spheroidal state 
of liquids " : — 

If a drop of water or certain other liquids be let fall 
from a funnel terminating in a small and fine tube 
upon a surface of metal rendered red hot, the following 
remarkable phenomena will be manifested: — 

1. The liquid will not wet the surface, but will appear 
to avoid touching it, and will assume a globular form like 
that which water affects when it is diffused on a greasy 
surface, or like globules of mercury upon glass. 

2. Instead of entering into violent ebullition, as might 
be expected, the temperature of the liquid will be very 
little affected, and the drop of water will either remain at 
rest, or be affected with gyratoiy motion. 

3. When the surface on whi(;h it rests is cooled down 



PROPERTIES OF WATER. 205 

to the temperature of 400° or 500°, the liquid will begin 
to diffuse itself on the surface, and will be suddenly 
scattered with violence in all directions. These experi- 
ments can be most conveniently made with a shallow 
capsule of metal shaped like a watch-glass, which can be 
kept at a white heat by a powerful lamp. The liquid can 
be let drop upon it by a fine pointed syringe or funnel, 

I have recorded this peculiarity of water, because it is 
one upon which boys as well as men can make valuable 
experiments, and because it has been thought that soma 
of those terrible steam-boiler explosions, of which we too 
frequently hear, are caused by the explosion of water 
within, which in contact with a highly-heated surface 
becomes spheroidal as above stated. Some have also 
broached the idea that the water in these cases not only 
assumes the conditions alluded to, but is even decomposed 
into its constituent elements of oxygen and hydrogen, 
which, if it is the case, would amply account for the wide- 
spread destruction which occurs. 

There is no doubt at all of this, that no safety-value 
yet devised will counteract the effects of a sudden and 
instantaneous increase of pressure within a steam-boiler. 
It literally has not time to act until the mischief is done, 
the explosive force acting first upon the parts immediately 
adjacent to the scene of action. 

This is often proved by the bursting of an ordinary shot- 



2o6 BOY ENGINEERS. 

gun, which will occur from a cause apparently quite in- 
sufficient to produce such a disaster. A small piece of 
dirt, for instance, stopping the muzzle never so loosely, 
will not be driven out, as would be sup})Osed, when the gun 
is fired, but will instead cause it to burst. A piece of thin 
paper pasted over the muzzle will do the same, slight as 
the obstruction may appear to be, although it would 
naturally be supposed that such a substance would in- 
stantly tear and allow the charge to pass through it. 

Take a glass tube and blow a pea through it, which all 
boys know is a remarkably easy thing to do. Put a cork 
in the end or close it with a finger, and try to hit your 
finger with the pea ; you will see it stick fast to the 
side of the tube, you can't blow it forward at all, and all 
you do in the attempt is to condense the air in the tube," 
and cause it to press the pea firmly against the side. 
Agtiin, take a glass tube, and cutting out a disc of card- 
board with a central hole to fit the tube, attach it to the 
end. Upon this lay another disc of the same size, say 
two inches diameter, now blow off" the top one, holding the 
tube upright. Of course it is easy to do so I Is it ? You 
will get black in the face before you can do it, although 
there is apparently nothing to })revent it. 

This last exi)eriment has hardly, perhaps, as yet received 
a satisfactory explanation, but all tends to show that 
causes may exist for explosion of steam-boilers against 



STEAM. «o7 

which it is difficult wholly to provide. Safety-valves, 
however well designed, have often failed in their action, 
and before the suddenly-increased pressure has had time 
to lift the valve, the boiler has given way. It is different 
with a pressure gradually and steadily increased. In this 
case the force spreads evenly, and the valve provided for 
the purpose feels the effect, and has time to yield to it, 
thus saving the catastrophe that must otherwise occur. 
If you stand at a railway station, you will not see the 
steam escape in a series of puffs from the safety-valve or 
the top of the boiler, but pouring forth in a steady stream 
as soon as it has attained power to lift the valve from its 
seat. I may remark, too, that if you could look into the 
boiler you would see no steam at all, but a perfectly clear 
space above the water, because steam is not visible until, 
on escaping into the atmosphere, it becomes cooled and 
condensed into minute drops of water. If you look at 
the glass guage which shows the exact height of the 
water in the boiler, and of which the upper part is full 
of steam, you will not see the latter, which is never- 
theless there, and ready to do you faithful service at any 
moment. 

Water is commonly said to boil at 2 1 2* of Fahrenheit's 
thermometer, and this may be said to signify that, at 
ordinary atmospheric pressure, it will at that temperature 
be converted into steam; and the more you stir up the fire, 



2oS BOY ENGINEERS, 

the more rapidly will the process take place, until the water 
becomes, as we say, wholly boiled away. Like many other 
common sayings, it is not exactly true that water boils 
at this temperature, because it depends on various con- 
comitant circumstances. The water, for instance, must be 
pure and the barometer at a certain height, i.e.,, the weight 
of the air must be at a specified number of pounds to the 
inch of surface, which the barometer will show as equal to 
29*92 1 inches of mercury. If the pressure of air is less, 
as ou the top of a mountain, the boiling-point will be at 
a lower temperature. At Bareges, in the Pyrenees, 4164 
feet above the level of the sea, the boiling-point is 204*8, 
the barometer standing normally at 25*51. 

Now in a steam-boiler the pressure is of course very 
great indeed, and rises with every degree of heat applied, 
and the water in this case is not converted into steam 
at 2 1 2°. In proportion to the increase of pressure, the 
increase of the temperature at which the water boils takes 
place. The pressure of steam on the inch at what is called 
one atmosphere is 15 lbs. If this is raised to 30 lbs., the 
temperature of the water at boiling-point will be 250' 
instead of 212.° Before we can state, therefore, the tem- 
perature of the water when it begins to pass into a state 
of vapour, we must know what the pressure is upon each 
square inch of its surface. 

Before we can understand the steam-engine thoroughly, 



STEAM. 209 

we must also know how much steam a certain quantity of 
water will produce, and this is remembered easily enough, 
for a cubic inch of water will expand into a cubic foot of 
steam, or so nearly that this will answer as the starting- 
point for any calculations that it may be necessary to 
make upon the matter. Let us go a step further. Suppose 
we place a cubic foot of water into a close vessel and 
evaporate it into steam, it is evident that it will exert 
an enormous pressure on all sides, tending to burst the 
vessel, or boiler as it is called in reference to the steam- 
engine. 

It is this pressure which is made use of in the steam- 
engine, and the limit to which it can be raised is probably 
that of the strength of the boiler. In the present 
day these boilers are made with great care and skill. 
They are of iron plates riveted together, generally iu the 
form of a cylinder, as it is the simplest and also the best 
to withstand internal (or external) pressure ; and in order 
to add to the heating surface, and thus raise the 
necessary steam as quickly as possible, tubes pass through 
it, either a number of small diameter, as in railway and 
marine-engine boilers, or fewer, as in the Cornish 
engines, in which there is either one large tube going 
through from one end to the other, or this is turned and 
brought back again, forming a pair of tubes, in which the 
flame from the fire-grate and the heated gases constantly 



? I o BOV ENGINEERS. 

circulate. These tubes do not weaken the boiler, as 
might very naturally be supposed, but act as stays or 
bonds. Those of a locomotive, which may be as many 
as 200, of about two inches diameter, and which run 
from the fire-box at one end into the smoke-box at the 
other, are fixed into the two exte"nal plates by conical 
rings of steel, driven into them at the ends when in 
place, thus forcing them outwards against the holes 
through which they pass. These end plates are of much 
thicker iron than the rest of the boiler, because the 
number of holes made in them weakens them, in addition 
to which it would hardly be possible to fix the tubes in 
thinner plates, as there would not be sufficient substance 
to resist the pressure of the conical ferrules. Fixed by 
these, any of the tubes can at any time be easily removed 
and new ones supplied in case of wear or accidental 
breakage; and in engine- works you may often see whole 
piles of these tubes which have been removed, in order to 
get at the inside of the main boiler, and which will be 
replaced and secured as before in a very short space oV 
time. 

Large boilers are, in addition to careful riveting of the 
plates, strengthened by stays and struts inside of cast or 
wrought iron, to assist in resisting the enormous strain 
to which they are subject when in use. This strain, at 
40 lbs. to the inch, will amount to no less than 2\ 



BOILERS. »ii 

tons to the foot, tending to tear the plates asunder. This 
pressure is, however, as a rule, considerably exceeded, 
and with perfect safety if the boiler is well made ; yet 
the plates of which it is composed are less than half an 
inch in thickness. 

Perhaps some of my readers may wonder how it is that 
they do not see any of the rivets when looking at a 
railway engine, except those at the two ends. The 
reason of this is, that the body of a boiler is always 
covered with a lagging, as it is called, of wood, with a 
layer of woollen felt underneath, to prevent the heat from 
escaping by radiation, as it would otherwise do. This is 
laid on in thin strips, and hooped over like the staves of a 
cask, and it is then painted a bright green or other colour, 
and varnished. The actual boiler plates are thus wholly 
concealed, and the engine wears a bright and handsome 
appearance, which is enhanced by the bright gun-metal 
fittings and polished rods of iron and steel. 

The main point to be aimed at in the construction of 
boilers is, to give as large a heating surface as possible, 
so as to produce steam with rapidity, and with a small 
consumption of fuel. Hence, the value of tubes, through 
or round which the fire and hot gases are made to 
circulate, each of which represents therefore so many 
square inches or square feet of heating surface. In 
spite of all care in lagging both boiler and cylinders, 



a la BOY ENGINEERS, 



it is found impossible to utilise satisfactorily all the heat 
given off by the burning fuel. There is always some 
degree of waste, and although, as a rule, the cylinders 
are brought as near the boiler as possible, the pressure 
existing in the boiler is never wholly imparted to them. 
Some engines, too, consume more fuel in proportion to 
the water converted into steam than others made from the 
same patterns, and in all respects exactly like them. 
There is, in point of fact, even in the best-made engines, 
a great loss of power from excessive friction and other 
causes, in spite of constant so-called improvements and 
additions. But of all engines to waste riower, models are 
the worst. They are, as a rule, the most useless and 
unsatisfactory machines in existence. There is, first, 
the difficulty of heating the boiler efficiently, especially 
where gas cannot be had for the purpose. The fire- 
grates, if such there be, are too small for coal, coke, or 
charcoal, and the draught insufficient. If spirits are used, 
they boil over, joints are unsoldered, paint burnt ofi", a 
great mess made, and very probably substantial injury to 
the table is the result. With regard to solder, indeed, 1 
readily admit it should never be used, but in small 
models it almost becomes a matter of necessity, and in 
bought ones cheaply made, it is quite certain to have a 
place. 1 have seen a pretty locomotive take its first 
trip half the length of a table, and quietly fall to pieces 



MODELS. ai3 

then and there, while the spirit, having boiled over and 
ignited, meandered in luminous streams all over the 
table. It is always, therefore, the best plan to work upon 
as large a scale as the state of the funds will allow; and 
our engine with its three-inch cylinder never gave us 
much trouble in the above particulars, because all the 
parts were large enough to be put together with screws 
and bolts and rivets, and the boiler had a sufficient fire- 
grate to allow a good layer of charcoal to burn within it. 
The draught, too, so necessary to keep the fuel in a state 
of incandescence, was amply maintained when the engine 
was at work by sending the waste steam up the chimney 
in the orthodox way. As to the additional labour 
entailed by a model of large size, it was not to be com- 
pared with the advantages otherwise gained. Moreover, 
we gained far better practice in filing and fitting than we 
should have done with a very small engine. 

The first thing we did was to make a very careful full- 
sized drawing of every part — a true working drawing, from 
which we could take ofi" distances and sizes, with the cer- 
tainty that we should be right if we followed them exactly 
in the construction of the engine. Without such drawing 
our work would have been of that haphazard kind which 
never did answer and never will. We had, moreover, 
here an advantage over makers of large engines, in that 
we could draw every detail of the full size, thus escaping 



214 BOV ENGINEERS. 

chance mistakes, which often occur in reading from a 
scale. In macliine-works, drawings are made of a certain 
number of inches to the foot — three inches, for instance, in 
a drawing signifying three feet, or any other quantity 
determined. It is easy to understand how, in making 
drawings, or in reading them off for the actual construc- 
tion, mistakes are liable to occur, which may, perhaps, not 
be discovered until the various parts are ready to be put 
together. With our own drawing, three inches stood fur 
three inches, and we were not obliged to refer to any scale 
of parts in the prosecution of our work. 

Centre lines were not forgotten as starting-points from 
which to measure right and left, so that if a slight error 
was made, it would not be multiplied by constant repeti- 
tion. No one accustomed to work as boys usually do, in 
a happy-go-lucky style, can have any idea of the con- 
fidence imparted to a workman who feels that the draw- 
ings laid before him are thoroughly trustworthy ; and to 
work with confidence is to work in a masterly manner. In 
making, for instance, the connecting rod, or in filing up 
a bearing, or turning the axle of the fly-wheel, we had 
not to set each up in its place to try whether it was 
exactly the size required. All we had to do was to refer 
it to the drawing, and if, on careful measurement with 
the compasses or callipers, it was exactly in accordance 
with the drawing, we laid it down with perfect confidence, 



BORING CYLINDERS. 215 

and proceeded to make some other part. The result was, 
that when all were finished, they dropped into their re- 
spective places on the bed-plate, and every part proved 
satisfactory. 

The first consideration is invariably the accurate boring 
of the cylinder. This cannot be satisfactorily done without 
a slide-rest, although, no doubt, it is "possible to do it. 
There are, moreover, two methods of accomplishing this 
work. The first is to chuck the cylinder, and fix a boring 
tool or inside tool in the slide-rest; the second is to attach 
the cylinder itself to the rest, and to use a boring bar, i.e.^ 
a bar of iron mounted between the lathe-centres with a 
boring tool fixed in a slot which passes through it. This 
tool revolves, while the cylinder is made to travel slowly 
onwards. This is the way in which large cylinders are 
bored, and a great deal of similar hollow work; but to ac- 
complish it the rest must be wholly self-acting, traversing 
along the bed by means of a screw or rack, to which 
motion is given by a set of wheels and pinions in connec- 
tion with the mandrel. For smaller work this plan is not 
so often used, and as our lathe was of the simpler kind, 
we had to chuck the cylinder and use a fixed tool. The 
proper chuck for such work is a face-plate of iron turned 
perfectly true upon the surface, and furnished with what 
are called dogs — i.e.^ clamps to hold any work securely 
down upon the face of the chuck. The latter may be of 



2 1 6 BOY ENGINEERS. 

the universal kind. There may be, first of all, the face- 
plate, and then a pair of sliding jaws like those of a vice, 
but of curved outline, which can be made to approach each 
other, either by a single screw with a right thread on one 
half and a left-hand thread on the other, or by a pair of 
independent screws. The first method forms a self-centring 
chuck ; the second does not, and is, for some purposes, 
advantageous. With this chuck, all that has to be done is 
to place the cylinder on one end upon its face, and screw 
up the jaws until they grip it securely. To assist in 
centring accurately when independent jaws are used, there 
are a number of concentric circles made upon the face- 
plate as a guide. We had neither a self-centring chuck 
nor a chuck with independent jaws, but merely a face- 
plate or circular disc of iron screwed to the mandrel, in 
which there were four slots, and in these there were 
clamps — mere hooks which could be drawn down upon the 
work by nuts underneath. These held the cylinder down 
upon the chuck by means of the flange, to which the 
cylinder cover had subsequently to be attached. 

To begin with, we had a good look at the casting, test- 
ing it with a small T-square, to see whether either of the 
flanges was more accurately at right angles to the bore 
than the other. Finding it to be so, we first clamped 
down this one on the face-plate, getting the bore to run 
as true as we possibly could, and then we faced up the 



TURNING CYLINDERS. 217 

outer flange as true as possible. We then reversed the 

cylinder, putting the corrected flange against the chuck, 

and secured it firmly, having first interposed a small bit 

of wood, previously turned true on both sides, and hollowed 

out to about what would be the finished size of the 

cylinder, which thus stood about half an inch off the metal. 

This bit of wood was turned perfectly level on both sides, 

and its object was to raise the cylinder so far off the metal 

that the tool could go entirely through it without coming 

in contact with the face-plate. The cylinder once fixed, 

was not removed until finished, except that the edges of 

the two flanges were afterwards turned up again. But we 

bored and turned off the face of the outer flange while 

the cylinder was on this chuck to ensure the flanges being 

exactly at right angles to the bore. This is of the greatest 

importance, because if it is not true the engine will never 

work well, as the stuflSng-box will not be central, and the 

piston and its rod will not fail to rub more on one side 

than the other. In all work needing accuracy, it is 

necessary to consider beforehand exactly how you intend 

to carry out the work to the finish after doing part of 

it well; and removing it from the lathe, you will find 

that you have got into a dilemma, and cannot get on 

without remounting the work ; and, try as much as you 

like, you never will remount it to run exactly as it did 

before. 



2 1 8 BOY ENGINEERS. 



Now here again we had learned by experience and by 
a previous failure. The first engine we tried to make was 
a brass one, because we considered it would be easier to 
turn. The cylinder was two inches by one and a half, and 
we drove the casting into a wooden chuck and bored it 
out, succeeding very fairly. We were proud of our work 
and took it out of the chuck to show a friend how well 
we had done it. We then set to work upou the valve-face, 
and made the ports, and, I believe, the piston. Next we 
bad to face up the flanges and fit on the cylinder covers 
This seemed a very easy job. We turned a bit of wood 
to fit inside the cylinder, but no I it was no longer true, 
nor could we get it so. We then turned a cylindrical rod 
and drove it inside the cylinder, so that it should be 
turned on the same centres as the rod ; but, alas I in 
driving it on we damaged one end of the wood slightly, 
and the back centre-point of the lathe did not fall into 
exactly the same position. We tried the face-plate, and 
at last we had to compromise matters and make the best 
of a bad job. The engine would work pretty well, but 
we never liked it, owing to the fact that we ourselves knew 
what no one else did, that it was at best a muddled job, 
and that the piston would not move freely, except in the 
exact position in which we had placed it, and other parts 
had to be left slack to allow a little play, or the friction 
brought it to a stand-still. There is a chuck, but we did 



TURNING. 



219 



not know it then, on which a cylinder can be truly re- 
mounted, but the best way by far is first to true up one 
flange, then to lay this on the face-plate and clamp it 
down securely, and never to take the cylinder off again 
till the bore is finished and the other flange turned. The 
edge of the flanges are of no real importance ; the first 
can be turned when that flange is faced, and the other 
before removing it from the chuck, after having otherwise 
completed it. Every part will thus be true, and you will 
have, as we found, but little trouble in completing the 
several fittings. This was the way in which we turned and 
bored the three-inch cylinder of the engine which I am 
now describing. 

As illustrations are a great assistance to the reader, and 
we are recording our own engineering accomplishments 
in order to encourage others, a drawing is given here of 
the various operations carried on, and of the various 
details of the engine itself. Fig. 18 is a section of the 
cylinder mounted ready for turning, and as if seen look- 
ing down upon it from above. A is the part of the chuck 
which screws on the mandrel. BB is the flat round part, 
the actual face-plate which has the slots in it. CC are 
the hooks or clamps by which the work is held down, and 
of which there are of course four. The face of the chuck 
is drawn at the side at H, but on a smaller scale. D is 
the flat bit of wood under the end of the cylinder, here 



220 



BOY ENGINEERS. 



represented as a board only, but in reality bored out to 
the size of the inside of the cylinder, which latter is 
represented at KK. A sectional drawing, it must be 
remembered, gives an object as it would appear sawn 
through down the centre as here, or sawn across, or 




Fig. xS 



sawn diagonally, and is an excellent mode of drawing to 
explain machinery. F is the tool, which is supposed to 
have almost reached the bottom. It is merely a flat steel 



INSIDE TOOLS. 2ii 



bar to clamp in the slide-rest, drawn out into a long 
rounded shank which is turned to the left, and sharpened. 
The upper face is flat, the metal below it being bevelled 
off as shown at L, but the flat surface is not horizontal, 
but slightly tending upwards, which gives a sharper edge. 
This will be better understood from the sketch of a 
straight tool at M of a similar kind. For cutting brasi 
this face would be left horizontal, as that metal will not 
be cut so well by a sharp-edged tool. 

The tool shown here is represented with a round end, 
but for the first cut on iron a point tool is better. It 
takes off less at a cut, but it produces a satisfactory sur- 
face, consisting of a series of shallow groves of a V shape, 
which can, if desired, be afterwards obliterated by a tool 
like that in the drawing, or with a flat end. A great 
deal of turned work is, however, left direct from the point 
tool. If the feed is slow, the grooves run into each other 
so nearly that a level surface is to all intents and pur- 
poses produced, and as the cutting edge is so small, less 
power is needed to drive the tool than would be require;! 
to drive a tool with either a round or flat end. We besran 
cur boring operations with an inside diamond-pointed tool, 
and at last took a very light cut with another with round 
end, which produced a surface over which the piston 
worked very smoothly indeed, and which soon became very 
highly polished. Accuracy of bore is, in fact, of far more 



a 2 7 BOY ENGINEERS. 

real importance than smoothness of surface. Tlie latter 
is sure to be produced before long by the friction of the 
parts, even if the bore is left as it comes from the pointed 
tool ; but if the cylinder is larger at one end than at the 
other, additional wear can but increase the error. Indeed, 
the engine never will in such case work satisfactorily, 
because the piston will be tight in one position and slack 
in another, and in the latter the steam that ought to drive 
it forward will of course escape round it and produce no 
useful effect. It might i)erhaps be supposed that, as the 
piston of an engine is packed, generally with elastic metal 
rings, these would expand, and so fill up the space when 
the larger part of the cylinder is reached. This is the 
case to a certain extent, but the friction is vastly increased 
by the powerful pressure exerted in the rings as they 
enter the smaller part of the cylinder at each stroke, and 
too much care cannot possibly be taken to make the 
cylinder exactly the same size from end to end. 

We now had a well-turned cylinder, with both flanges 
truly at right angles to the bore of it, and the next thing 
to do was to turn up the cover or oovers. There are 
generally two of these, but one is sometimes formed by 
the bed-plate when the cylinder is to be placed vertically. 
Ours was to take this position, and therefore we only 
needed one. This was a round disc cast with a short 
tenon to fit inside the cylinder when turned, and with a 



STEAM ENGINE, 



•23 



boss on the upper side to be bored out for the reception 
of the gland or stuffing-box through which the piston-rod 




Fig. 19. 



has to work. Fig. 19, DE and F represents this — P 
being the top view or plan, and DE the section of the 



224 BOV ENGINEERS. 



same through the stuffing-box, which is shown as just 
ready to be lowered into the ghind, where it will be held 
by the two studs and nuts. GF is the perspective view of 
this part. The space below the gland is filled with pack- 
ing — either tow, or india-rubber, or patent metallic pack - 
ing — but always tow in a small engine, which is forced 
into close contact with the piston-rod by screwing down 
the gland. It must be well greased to render it quite 
steam-tight, and it should not grasp the piston-rod so 
closely as to add greatly to the friction, yet closely enough 
to allow no steam to escape. 

Now, in turning up the cylinder cover, the same rule 
holds good that was mentioned in respect of the cylinder 
itself. It must be turned as far as possible at once ; it 
must, however, be chucked twice, as both sides have to 
be turned. We first turned quite truly the under side by 
driving the casting into a boxwood chuck, taking care 
that it fitted it tightly, and bedded closely down on the 
bottom of the hollow — i.e.^ the bottom of the inside of the 
chuck. There was a second deeper hollow permitting the 
boss to go into it out of the way, but this was not made an 
exact fit, as all that was necessary was that the flat part of 
the cover should bed well down, and that the edge should 
be held securely. We now turned the first side very care- 
fully, making the tenon fit very truly inside the cylinder, 
which, being finished, we could apply as a test of accuracy 



CYLINDER COVER. 225 

at any moment. Of course, we could not get at the outside 
edge of the cover, as it was driven into the chuck just so 
far as to allow the tenon part to remain outside it. We 
had no special difficulty in making a good fit of them, as 
we had now had plenty of practice. 

Having faced up and completed this under side of the 
cylinder cover, we turned a few concentric circles upon 
the face of it, not deep, but about one-tenth of an inch 
apart; so that we could, if we chose, smear them over 
with red-lead and oil before screwing down the cover. 
This plan is commonly used in steam-engines to secure 
a perfectly steam-tight joint, but if the parts are faced 
up with perfect accuracy, no packing of any kind should 
be needed. We had to face ours by hand with a flat- 
ended tool, because there was not space enough for a 
slide-rest tool to traverse, and it was a very simple job, 
not worth rigging up the slide-rest to accomplish. The 
next job was to face up and finish accurately the top of 
the cover. This was cast with a moulding upon it, which, 
like many other things in this world, was for mere show, 
and not for uae, but there were two plain flat parts upon 
it requiring to be turned true and level. There are but 
three kinds of tools necessary for brass-work — the round 
end, the point, and the flat tool, sometimes called a 
planisher. These are none of them made very keen, 
because a keen tool catches into brass ; they therefore are 



226 BOV ENGINEERS. 

ground to po* or not less than 70*, and even when the 
cutting edge is 90" or a right angle, it is just eased off 
a little upon the hone. We had also learnt one peculiarity 
of brass which is often most annoying, viz., that it is 
given to chatter terribly, so that instead of a smooth and 
even surface, it is all over minute waves. To prevent 
this, some put a bit of leather on the rest under the tool, 
but the best plan is not to lay the tool quite flat upon 
the rest, but to raise it a little at one corner — something 
like the way in which a chisel is raised for wood-turning. 
The edge thus attacks the metal diagonally, and if a little 
play or spring is allowed it by the hand, it will cut very 
cleanly and the annoyance will cease. There is another 
thing or two worth mentioning here in respect of this 
material, which applies to gun-metal as welL 

In commencing to turn brass-work, the rough outside 
will always be found sadly detrimental to the tool. This 
is because it contains numberless fused grains of sand 
imbedded in the metal, which are intensely hard. To get 
nd of these, the castings are often thrown for a short 
time into a pickle of sulplmric acid and water, which by 
its solvent property destroys this surface and renders the 
metal fit for the lathe. With a pickle of nitric acid or 
nitric and sulphuric mixed, a beautiful colour is given to 
rough castings, which are then dried in hot sawdust after 
being washed well in water, and left in the rough state, 



GLAND. 227 

edges only here and there being turned, and burnished, 
and lacquered. By burnishing the cutting edge of a 
scrapiug tool for brass, a beautiful lustre will be given to 
the work which no emery polishing can beat. We were 
not, however, up to these various dodges, and patiently 
worked on the castings as best we might, until, by dint 
of labour, we put upon them a sufficiently satisfactory 
face. 

There was no great difficulty to be overcome in facing 
this cylinder cover, but we had to take special care to 
drill it centrally to the size of the piston-rod, and then 
with a very narrow round tool we hollowed out to a cup- 
like shape the place for the gland — i.e.^ we first turned a 
cylindrical hollow, and then rounded it at the bottom, so 
that the gland would slide accurately into it, and the 
packing would be pressed sideways against the piston-rod 
as well as downwards. For the same reason the gland 
itiself is generally cup-shaped below in the opposite 
direction. 

Before removing the cover from the chuck, we held a 
point tool so as to mark a circle a quarter of an inch from 
the edge as a guide in drilling the holes to receive the 
bolts by which it was to be attached to the cylinder. If 
the drawing is inspected, it will be seen that the cover 
has a flat part just outside the stuffing-box at ah^ then a 
moulding, and then a flat part again. That marked ah 



2 28 BOY ENGINEERS. 



was to talce the ends of a pair of guide-bars, of which 
nieiitioii will be raade again by and by. 

Tlie piston H and its packing KK is shown in its place 
in the cylinder. The packing here was of tow, wound into 
«i groove left for the purpose in the edge of the piston. 
L is the piston-rod riveted into the middle of the piston, 
in wliich a hollow is made below to receive the head; 
ahc are called the ports or steam-ways. One side of the 
cylinder is cast with a thick projection extending tVoin 
one end of it to the other, and in this are cast, or cored 
out., as it is called, two channels by which steam is admitted 
alternately above and below the piston. These do not 
run into each other, but have an exit as shown. There 
is also a central passage, which is clear of the others and 
lies between them, being connected with a pipe screwed 
into the side of this part, whence it turns either into the 
air, into the chimney, or into a condenser, in which, in 
low-pressure engines, the steam is again converted into 
water by exposure to cold. In our engine this pipe was 
carried into the chimney of the boiler to increase the 
draught, as it always is in locomotive engines, and it is 
from it that the incessant puffs of steam issue with such 
a loud noise, the result of the high pressure at which it 
escapes. 

M of this same drawing is the eccentric of cast iron 
with its ring or strap of brass. N is the hole through 



ECCENTRIC, 229 

which (eccentric to the real centre) the axle of the fly- 
wheel passes. We shall speak of this again and point 
out its action, its object being to move the slide-valve 
which has yet to be described. The strap or hoop ia 
generally made in two parts, with lugs or projections to 
receive bolts, by wliich they are again united when in 
their place upon the slieave M. To prevent the lioop 
from slipping off the disc sideways, the latter is turned 
with a deep rectangular groove, which allows the hoop to 
enter it a little way all round, or there is a pin which is 
screwed into and quite through tlie hoop, so as to fall into 
this groove, or the hoop is channelled on the inside and 
the disc itself enters this channel. 

The pin was the easiest plan, and was therefore the one 
which we ourselves followed. It is, however, just as well 
in a small engine to bore out the eccentric and leave it as 
cue piece, and, having sli[)ped it over the sheave or disc 
of the eccentric, to attach to this another thin disc on 
each side ; or, lastly, to turn the disc so as to leave one 
rim standing up, and then screw on one disc only on the 
opposite side. 

In all such matters as this there is a vast difference 
between a model and a large engine. The latter has to 
be constructed so as to give to all parts the greatest 
possible strength combined with the necessary freedom of 
motion in the moving parts. In a vciQ^^X^ friction is the 



ajo BOY ENGINEERS. 

great drawback to success. A very little will often suffice 
to prevent the machine altogether from working, and in 
every case it consumes by far the greater portion of the 
power, so as practically to preclude small engines from 
doing useful work. Nothing will counteract this except 
careful fitting and ample lubrication, especially in respect 
of the piston and slide-valve. In very small engines the 
stuffing-boxes are left wholly without packing, and a very 
little tow or cotton is all that can be allowed round the 
piston. 

With the cylinder, however, as large as the one made 
by us, useful work was really possible, although such a 
small engine cannot be worked with economy. The same 
cost for fuel which will produce a given amount of power 
in an engine with a three-inch cylinder will suffice for 
a cylinder twice as large, and with twice the effect. 
Engines of small cylinder surface are generally driven at 
a very high speed, and are worked at high-boiler pressure ; 
but those of large cylinders, such as are used in Cornwall 
as pumping engines for mining purposes, and which are 
usually on the condensing principle, are worked at low 
pressure, and very slowly indeed. Massive engines, again, 
are fitted with cylinders of large diameter in proportion 
to their height, and the stroke being very short, they are, 
in screw-steamers especially, worked at great speed ; but 



ECCENTRIC. 231 



thty are almost always condensing engines, not high pres- 
sure, like laud and locomotive engines. 

As we have drawn an eccentric and its strap, we may as 
well say a word or two more about it, for it is an essential 
part of every engine. It is, in point of fact, only a crank, 
but usually of very short throw or traverse. Whether it 
is a fancy or no, the eccentric appears a much more 
smoothly working contrivance than an ordinary crank, and 
yet, if the pin of the latter were to be greatly enlarged, it 
would become one. The eccentric stroke is twice the 
distance between the centre of the disc and that of the 
crank shaft, or between its real centre and that which is 
used as such ; for if the drawing is inspected, it will be 
seen that the hole for the axle is a little on one side. 
The object of this part of an engine is to work the slide- 
valve, which only has a comparatively short traverse, and 
whose oflSce is to close and open alternately the ports of 
the engine so as to admit and cut off the steam. This 
valve is like an oblong box with a broad rim round its 
edge. When placed in the middle position, it covers all 
thret ports, the central one being covered by its inside or 
hollow part, and the top and bottom ports by its broad 
rim or flange. Outside it is entirely cased in by a large 
box called the steam-chest or valve-casing, and into this 
the steam is admitted by a pipe from the boiler. When 
all the ports are closed, this steam cannot get into the 



232 BOY ENGINEERS. 

cylinder at all, but when by the rotation of the crank- 
Bhaft the eccentric comes into action and causes the valve 
to slide down or up a little distance, either the upper or 
lower port leading to the cylinder is opened, so that steam 
can pass through it into the cylinder, and at the same 
time the other two ports are connected by both being in- 
side the valve or box, so that the steam can escape by 
that port into the valve, and out again by the middle port 
into the air or into the condenser. 

I have ex})lained this because I remember well how, ae 
a boy, the action of this valve puzzled me, and how, ir 
every model I attempted at first to make, I tried to follow 
some other easier plan ; yet after all it is a simple method, 
and an inspection of the drawing will render it clear. 

TT is the valve-casing or outer box into which steam 
from the boiler passes by the steam-pipe. Now if V, 
which is the slide-valve, is inspected, it will be seen that 
inMe it the ports a and b are connected, but not tf, 
which is, however, open so that steam can enter it. Thia 
steam too, getting under the piston, will force it up in 
the cylinder, and any steam or air which is above it will 
go down through the upper port and into the slide-valve 
and thence into the middle port, and so escape. Just 
before the piston gets to the top, the rod of the eccentric 
moves the valve down so far that the lower port and 
centre one come into connection inside the valve, while 



SLIDE VALVE. 233 



the top one is now open for steam to enter tlie top of the 
cylinder. It will push down the piston, therefore, while 
the steam underneath it from the last stroke will escape 
inio the middle port as before. So by the slight move- 
ment of this cleverly-arranged slide-valve, the alternate 
up-and-down movement of the piston is secured, and the 
engine kept at work. The outer box or valve-casing has 
its stuffing-box just the same as the cylinder through 
which the valve rod passes steam-tight. This rod is the 
same as that marked R on the eccentric, but drawn to a 
much smaller scale. 

It is necessary, of course, to make the valve move 
steam-tight, but very smoothly upon the surface on which 
it slides, or else steam would get under it and interfere 
with the working of the engine. This is one of the diffi- 
culties to be mastered in making, and this is how we 
succeeded. The valve was brass, and we first of all filed 
its face as level as we could, trying it by a straight-edge 
or thin steel rule (the blade of a square). When it 
seemed to be quite level, we finished by rubbing it on an 
old school-slate, which brought it very soon to a beautiful 
face. We wetted the slate during the process. Then it 
was necessary to get a similar face upon the part on 
which the valve was to work. It was more difficult, 
simply because the surface was larger, but we did it in 
the ««/r»e kind ^f way, first filing and then rubbing down, 



234 BOY ENGINEERS. 



and we took great care to keep the face of the part parallel 
to the inside or bore of the cylinder. 

In every case, nevertheless, a little play must be allowed 
to the slide-valve, which must be so attached to its rod 
that the latter does not in the least tend to lift it. The 
steam pressure will keep it close if it is allowed to 
do so. 

There are several methods of doing this, but we followed 
that commonly used in locomotive engines, and shown 
in the same drawing at Nos. i, 2, and 3. This is a 
frame of iron, left white in each of the sketches, which it 
will be seen spans the whole of the valve, and into a boss 
on which the rod is screwed : i is a view from the back ; 
2, from the side ; 3, a perspective view, which will assist 
also in rendering more clear to the reader the form of the 
valve itself, with its broad flange acting as a cover to 
the ports. This frame fits round the valve, but quite 
loosely, so as only to move it up and down, but not so as 
to hold it. Thus the steam can act freely in pressing it 
against the valve-facing. At fig. 4 is seen a hinge 
which allows free play to the eccentric rod, and by which, 
when expansion gear is not used, but the valve worked 
direct from the eccentric, the valve can be moved without 
the intervention of any guides. This, however, brings a 
little undue strain upon the stuffing-box, and consequently 
the frame has often a second rod and stuffing-box on the 



EXPANSION GEAR. 235 

opposite side, which of course keeps the rod in a direct 
line. But we were not content with either plan. We 
made ours to reverse, and to cut off steam at any part of 
the stroke, by which we entailed upon ourselves the 
trouble of fitting two eccentrics instead of one, and also 
some levers which this action renders necessary. 

Let me explain, first of all, about this cut-off system, 
commonly named expansion gearing. In a high-pressur« 
engine, the steam may be entering the cylinder with a 
force of forty, fifty, or a hundred pounds pressure on 
the square inch, giving to the piston, according to the 
number of inches of its surface, a great degree of impetus. 
Economists have argued that there is not the slightest 
occasion to continue this impetus throughout the whole 
stroke, but that the steam may be cut off before it is 
nearly finished, and allowed to continue its action on the 
piston by its expansive force, which, though it will of 
course gradually get less and less, will suffice to drive the 
piston forward. The steam is therefore admitted at full 
power for a second, and then the valve moves and cuts it 
off altogether, and the piston continues its journey under 
a diminished pressure, until by the opening of the other 
port its action is reversed. 

Locomotive and marine engines are always fitted with 
expansion gearing, but not generally speaking farm 
engines, and it is not commonly applied to fixed engines. 



836 £0Y ENGINEERS. 

unless of a very large size. A good deal depends on the 
price of fuel. In coal districts, where it is cheap, economy 
is not much studied, but where the supply is mere limited, 
it becomes very important to reduce in every possible way 
the quantity required to work a steam-engine. 

It is evidently, therefore, a great object to do this in 
ocean steumers, which have to carry their supply of coal 
on board, and which have, perhaps, long voyages to make, 
with no opportunity of renewing their stock of fuel. 

Our own object, however, in using expansion gearing 
was a very different one. It was solely because we wished 
to make our engine as perfect as we could. 

I have spoken also of reversing action, which, as all 
young travellers know, is absolutely necessary in a loco- 
motive, which they will, no doubt, have frequently noticed 
as capable of going backwards or forwards at pleasure ; and 
they will liave also probably noticed that the engineer in 
charge, when desiring to change the direction, pulled 
towards him or pushed from him a handle. This handle 
is connected by levers with a pair of eccentrics on the 
crank axle, one being the forward, the other the back- 
ward eccentric, either of which can be brought at pleasure 
into gear with the rod of the slide-valve. 

This link motion is shown in fig. 20. BC are the two 
eccentrics, keyed on the same axle, D, side by side, but at 
right an-rles to each other as ref^ards their throw ; EF 



LINK MOTION. 



237 



are the eccentric rods, which are pivoted at G to a pair of 
lugs, one at each end of the link L, which is suspended 
at R from a cranked lever OAR A is the fixed point 
on which this lever turns, so that if the handle is palled 
back, it will pull up the link with it, raising the end G 




Fig. 90. 



of the eccentric rod E, and also tliat of F. K is the rod 
of the slide-valve, working between guides, HH ; but 
if there are two stuffing-boxes to the valve-casing, these 



238 BOY ENGINEERS. 

are not required, as their object is to cause the rod to 
move in a right line. M is an arched piece of iron with 
notches in it, into which falls a spring catch N, connected 
with a secondary handle near that of the main lever, being 
pivuted to it. 

Now it will be noticed that EGK are in a line, and 
that the motion of the eccentric C will be imparted 
directly to the valve-rod, just as if the whole were a simple 
eccentric and valve-rod, but the lower eccentric rod in its 
present position will only cause the link to vibrate without 
moving the valve-rod at all. There are other forms of 
link used, but this is the most common. To reverse the 
engine, the lever D is pulled back until the other eccen- 
tric comes into a line with the valve-rod, and by drawing 
back D, or pushing it forward to a short distance only, 
securing it by the spring catch N, the traverse of the 
valve becomes limited, and the steam is cut off at any 
desired point of its stroke. If this drawing, which repre- 
sents the levers as they would appear in a locomotive 
engine, is turned so as to place the letter B and eccentrics 
at the bottom, it will exactly represent the link as applied 
to our engine, in which, as will be described by and by, 
the cylinder was placed with its stuffing-box downwards, 
and the crank axle was down below it, which is a capital 
plan, as the more the weight is placed at the bottom, the 
steadier an engine will work. It makes no sort of 



RE VERSING. 239 



difference whether or not the cylinder is horizontal, or in 
any other handy position. 

The reason that a link motion serves to reverse an 
engine is this : When the piston is equally in the middle 
of its stroke, where we may suppose it to have arrived 
at the time the steam was turned off and the engine 
Slopped, it is evident that it will be ready to move 
indifferently in either direction according to whichever 
side steam is first admitted. By the way in which the 
eccentrics are fixed, one will be ready to move the slide- 
valve in one direction and the other in the contrary 
direction, and this link enables the engine-driver to 
throw either into action at pleasure. He has conse- 
quently power to admit the steam to either side of the 
piston as he pleases, or to stop the engine by drawing up 
the link till the slide and stud P of the slide-valve rod 
falls half way between E and G, when the motion of the 
eccentrics will only cause the link to oscillate upon P 
without moving the valve-rod at all. 

It must be clearly understood that the only union 
between E and K is by the link — the piece P being 
attached to the valve-rod, and the link sliding up and 
down upon it. The link is attached to E and F perma- 
nently at GG. When, therefore, the link is raised by 
the levers, the eccentric rods go with it, but PK do not. 
The arch M is fixed to the bed-plate in a locomotive, and 



240 BO V ENGINEERS. 

occupies a place close to the engine-driver's right hand, so 
that it is not situated, as here, over the eccentrics, but a 
Jong way behind them ; and the connection is made with 
the bell crank A, by a long flat rod, which would be 
attached at about the point ON, and this would not be 
the handle, as represented here, but only a cranked lever. 
This is one of the cleverest inventions connected with a 
locomotive, and is now also applied to engines for many 
other purposes. It works easily, is not liable to get out 
of order, and enables the expansion principle to be carried 
out to great nicety. The arch is here represented as 
single, but in practice two are placed side by side about 
two inches apart, and the lever works between them. AH 
these levers are flat bars with forked ends, and we made 
ours in the same way, filiug up all of them, or grinding 
them on emery wheels where perfect surfaces were not 
needed. 

In making a working drawing of this part, to get the 
proper curve of the link, which is, however, sometimes 
made straight, we struck the arc from the centre of D the 
crank-shaft, which brought it as nearly as possible correct, 
so that it worked smoothly. The slide P, it is evident, 
must fit and yet not jam in the link. It was made thus : 
The end of the valve-rod was forked so as to span the 
link, and the plate P, of which the hindmost only ig 
shown, but on the near side is a similar one. The circle 



LINK MOTION. 241 



at P is a pin, which is turned to fit nicely between the 
sides of the link, and which extends through it. It has 
a shoulder turned down, and the tenons thus formed are 
screwed, and the flat plates are then screwed to them. 
The small fig. 2 will make this clear. AA is one side of 
the link, B the round piece of iron or brass turned with 
tenons, on which plates CC are screwed or riveted. At 
P is seen one plate, which, as the dotted continuation of 
the lines shows, goes across both sides of the link ; and 
the similar plate represented as removed would be on this 
side. The rounded part, therefore, alone is between the 
sides of the link, and will move up and down freely in 
spite of the curve, which is as easily traversed as if it 
were straight. The forked end of the slide-valve rod is 
dotted, and merely to show that it spans the plates, and 
is attached to the same tenons as they are. It would of 
course be in reality standing straight out towards the 
spectator, and not hanging down as drawn ; in fact, it 
could not occupy the latter position, because it is held up 
by the guides. 

It is now necessary to say a few words about the action 
of the eccentric. Its entire traverse or stroke is, as stated, 
twice the distance between the real centre of the disc 
keyed en the shaft and the centre of the latter, and this 
is exactly the traverse it will give to the slide-valve. In 
setting it out, therefore, the two centres, i.e,^ its own and 



343 BOY ENGINEERS. 

the centre of the hole to be made in it for the crank- 
8haft, are to be the same distance apart as the stroke of 
the valve in either direction — e.g., the width of the port 
and a little over — a very little, so as to make sure that 
the valve will cover it, and travel just beyond it before 
the motion begins in the opposite direction. All crank 
action is alike in one particular, whether produced by 
eccentric or otherwise. The action upon a slide actuated 
thereby is not of equal speed throughout, being greatest 
when in the middle of the stroke, and least when at the 
ends. This is not a great drawback to its use, as it is 
counterbalanced by its extreme handiness in other respects. 
The eccentric, considered as a crank, must be at right 
angles, or nearly so, to the other crank driving the fly- 
wheel. Its greatest throw must be at a time when the 
other crank is at its least, or on the dead centre ; but the 
eccentric having to begin its work of opening the valve 
a little before the piston is at the end of its stroke and 
the crank in the position named, it is set forward a little 
upon the shaft, instead of being quite at right angles to 
the other. 

Having entered almost necessarily into explanations of 
the action of eccentrics and of link motions, we must now 
go on to state how we actually made these portions of our 
engine. We left oflF at the boring of the cylinder and 
fitting of its covers, with the facing up of the valve and 



PIN DRILLS. 243 



its seat. The valve-casing and its cover wa'^ merely a 
matter of filing and neat fitting — the gland being small, 
was cut with a thread outside, and screwed into its place, 
the boss being drilled and tapped for that purpose. We 
just ran through the boss a drill the size of the valve- 
rod, and followed it with a larger, which was carried 
down nearly to the bottom, but not quite, so that it made 
a recess, of which the bottom was tapering. The proper 
tool for this sort of work is a re-centring or pin-drill, i.e,^ 
a drill with a projecting end, which goes into the hole 
first drilled, while its edges cut the cavity larger. This 
ensures the cavity being concentric with the hole originally 
made. These pin-drills are used very extensively in the 
mechanical trades to form countersunk holes for cheese- 
headed screws, and should form part of every amateur 
median ic's stock in trade. If our readers go to the 
gunmaker, he will show them several kinds of this useful 
tool, which he uses to a very great exrent. They will b« 
found also at any machine-shop, but not always at tool- 
shops, as most workmen make their own, because they 
are required of all sorts of odd sizes, and there is no 
standard size recognised, as there is of other drills. 
Not having any, and, in fact, never having seen one, we 
did cur work as stated, and made a satisfactory job 
of it. 

In making this engine and many other things, we had 



244 BOY ENGINEERS. 



occasion for a number of six-sided nuts, not that square 
cues were not a deal easier to make, but the hexagonal 
form was vastly to be preferred, as more correct in 
design theoretically as well as practically. In the days 
which I am speaking, bolts and nuts could not, I 
fancy, be purchased ready-made of all sizes, as they 
can now, and we had to make our own, with a screw- 
plate to cut the threads. Now a six-sided nut is a 
difficult customer to deal with, and needs very careful 
filing to get it true and even. We accomplished it 
thus : — We cut a notch in a bit of tin with an angle of 
135°, which we got at first by dividing a circle into six 
equal parts, and connecting the points of division by 
straight lines, so as to represent a six-sided nut ; cutting 
out this, we used one of its angles as a gauge, by which 
to cut the notch in our slip of tin. We then took a bar 
of iron long enough to make six nuts, and we filed it up 
to six sides by help of our gauge. We then sawed it off 
with a hack-saw into six equal pieces, each of which we 
afterwards drilled, drove on a taper mandrel, and turned 
at each end, rounding off neatly the one which was to 
stand uppermost. When cut off, and while still upon 
the mandrel, we touched up each nut with a smooth file 
to give it more perfect finish, and we thus made all our 
nuts precisely alike. We then placed them in a vice with 
lead clamps to prevent bruising them, and drilled them 



BOLTS AND NUTS. 245 

half from one side and half from the other, running 
a broach through afterwards to equalise the holes ready 
for the taps. The shanks of the bolts were turned by 
hand with a graver, and finished with a file, and they 
were cut from rods sufficiently large to allow of being 
filed up to six-sided heads ; but we gave up this as en- 
tailing unnecessary labour, and generally turned the 
heads also in the lathe and left them round. Thus 
made, however, they were liable to turn round and 
round in their places while the nuts were being screwed 
up , we therefore cut a nick across the heads for a screw- 
driver, by which we could hold them until they got a 
bite upon the surface of the parts where they wew 
placed, after this they could be tightened without 
turning. 

The handles ON were just the parts that, if well-made, 
add much to the appearance of an engine. We made 
them therefore of round iron, centred and turned up at 
the handle end to a nice shape, and then filed down 
neatly, the flat sides being rounded in a hollow sweep 
into the turned part at A, where the pin goes upon which 
it turns ; we also finished the top in the lathe, but the 
end R being forked to receive the end of the bar which 
is attached to the link, we made it of a separate piece. 
This was turned on a taper mandrel first, to face up its 
two round sides, and then, having bored and tapped the 



m6 boy engineers. 

other part by vhich it was to be attached to its arm, 
we mounted it on a chuck with a projecting centre-screw 
to fit it, and thus were enabled to turn up the neck 
as well. 

Wherever a fork of this kind occurs, if it is large 
enough to turn, it is better made as a separate piece, 
unless the arm upon which it occurs is a very short one. 
This arm, when the boss is mounted in the lathe, flies 
round and round with great rapidity, and endangers the 
knuckles, or even the face, especially if the turner is 
8hort-8io:hted, and oblio^ed to look closely as his work 
proceeds. It is in making small models that these parts 
give most trouble, especially if the lathe is not one that 
runs lightly and easily. It may be taken as a general 
rule that the lathe should be suited for the work, and 
that not only cannot heavy work be accomplished on 
a light lathe, but that light work cannot be done on 
a heavy one, as may be easily proved by turning a set of 
studs in a six-inch lathe, such as is usually fitted with 
back-irear for metal work. It will be found altogether 
too sluggish and heavy, with too much im}ietu8 when 
once speed is got up, and too little at starting afresh 
after stopping to inspect what has been already done. 
Having experimented upon shirt-studs with just such 
a lathe, I speak from experience ; at the same time it is 
absolute bullying to turn heavy work and to use heavy 



ECCENTRIC DISC. 247 

chucks upon a really light lathe fit for ornamental turning. 
I do not say that it cannot be done, for I have seen the 
naves of farm cart-wheels turned upon a three-inch centre- 
lathe, propped up to six inches with a block of wood 
permanently fixed under the poppit. It took in the work 
in this way, but it is easy to understand the strain upon a 
mandrel and collar designed only to carry work of the 
very lightest description. No doubt it has long ago been 
worn out and descended to the scrap heap. 

The discs of the eccentrics do not in the drawing show 
the mode in which they were turned. They were, in fact, 
bored first through the real centres, and turned and 
faced up on a mandrel. This hole was of no importance, 
as it did not interfere with that for the axle, and it 
was consequently left, and not plugged up or concealed. 
A groove was turned in the edge of each disc to receive 
the pin or pins ; for there were two spoken of before, 
and shown at opposite sides. They had no heads, and 
were sunk to the level of the brass hoops, so as not to pro- 
ject. They did not, of course, show at all, but are drawn 
as if the disc was a section, the dotted line being supposed 
to be the bottom of the groove. The eccentric hoops in 
this case had no lugs, and were cast and made in one 
piece, which was mounted in a boxwood chuck, that had 
a place cut out to receive the projecting part C, and 
carefully bored and faced on each side; and while the 



248 £0V ENGINEERS, 



latter work was being done, a line was traced with a 
point tool as a guide for subsequently filing to a true 
circle concentric with the inside the outer edge of the 
hoop, which could not be turned on account of the pro^ 
jection C, unless, indeed, the lathe were fitted with a 
segment stop by which the rotation of the mandrel could 
be arrested at any point. This, however, was a complica- 
tion which our lathe did not possess, and we filed the 
brass up to the lines traced on each side, and then 
rounded off the angles to give it a nice finish. 

The link LL was made of a plate of iron a quarter of 
an inch thick, filed down to three-sixteenths. We first 
cut out this link on paper, and gumming it to the 
iron, marked it all round with a finely-pointed centre- 
punch. We marked it on a piece not much broader than 
needed, and before shaping it on the outside we drilled 
holes all along the slot, which we threw into one by a 
rat-tail file, and then finished by carefully filing all 
over. It was a somewhat tedious job, and required care 
to get the faces true and square to each other, but we 
accomplished it at last by not hurrying over it, and we 
got the angles all sharp, and the surfaces flat ; and when 
finished and in place upon the engine, it looked exceed- 
ingly workmanlike. We also managed to fit the joints 
of this link motion and its levers, so that they worked 
nicely without being too slack and shaking about, as they 



LINK MOTION. 249 



often do in model engines. All this required care and 
patience, but in our various attempts at mechanical 
manipulation, we had acquired a fair degree of both, and 
were seldom guilty of hurrying our work, and thereby 
spoiling it. 

The semicircular notched plates were cut in a similar 
manner out of a bit of lock-plate, but for these, of which 
a pair were made, we took advantage of the lathe. We 
clamped upon the face-plate, on a bit of board placed to 
allow the tool to cut quite through without coming in con- 
tact with the face-plate, the bit of iron plate, and with a 
tool fixed in the slide-rest cut out its centre so as to leave 
a ring, of which, however, the outside was of course 
square. We then cut out this again, at a width sufficing 
for the pieces we required, so that we produced now a 
circular ring of flat metal, which fell off as soon as it was 
completed. We then marked the diameter and sawed it 
into halves, which we fixed together in a vice, and drilled 
for a pair of studs at each end, which were turned with 
shoulders, and riveted into the plates at each end, to 
keep them a given distance apart. Before the rivets, how- 
ever, were put, and while still clamped together in the 
vice, we filed the notches so that they should exactly 
tally with each other. I had almost forgotten, however, 
one important part of the proceeding, viz., heating the 
ends and screwing them in a vice, in order to bend up a 



250 BOY ENGINEERS. 

little bit to receive a hole for a screw, by which the pair 
when finished were attached to the bed-plate in which 
they rested. This bed-plate was fixed to the boiler, which 
was a vertical one, in the manner we shall by and by 
describe. This boiler, however, we decided not to attempt 
ourselves, because we wanted to put a good amount of pres- 
sure upon it, and did not feel certain of our capabilities 
in regard to riveting and fitting it. It was, however, 
made to our own plan, and got up steam and kept up the 
supply very well indeed. 

The boiler, as will be seen from fig. 2i, was cylindrical, 
but stood upon a square base in which was the fire-grate. 
This consisted of a grating which sloped slightly upwards 
from the furnace door. The latter was on the side oppo- 
site to the cylinder and fly-wheel, so as to keep the dust 
and dirt from the working parts as much as possible. A 
circular flue from the back or nearly the back of the 
grate went entirely through the boiler vertically, forming 
a chimney at the top, and into this the exhaust steam 
was carried by the pipe P, which turned upwards in the 
funnel. The other pipe just below it brought the steam 
from the boiler into the steam-chest of the slide-valve, 
which being at the back, is concealed from view by the 
cylinder. 

M is a tap for drawing off the water of the boiler, and 
was of large size to enable it also to carry off any sedi- 



252 BOY ENGINEERS. 

ment which, settling at the bottom, would prevent the heat 
of the furnace from exercising its full power upon the 
water. ABC are gauge taps for the purpose of testing the 
height of the water, and D is the glass water-gauge for 
the same purpose. We made the gauge, but not the taps, 
which were easily procurable from the gasfitters. S is 
the safety-valve with its lever and weight. The latter, 
hung on the outer notch, registered a pressure of fifty 
pounds to the square inch, we seldom worked at a highei 
pressure than twenty-five pounds, but the boiler was 
tested and considered safe at eighty pounds. The cylin- 
drical part was of copper, the lower part of iron plate, the 
two fastened together with a circular row of rivets, a layer of 
red-lead being interposed. To stifien the whole there were 
two wrought-iron rings turned up bright, and partly on 
these, and partly on a pair of short pillars, rested the bed- 
plate HH,to which thecylinder andother parts of the engine 
were bolted. The bearings of the crank-shaft, however, were 
on the top plate of the iron base, the fly-wheel being outside. 
The row of ornamental holes on the lower part were 
merely to admit more air to the fuel, which was charcoal 
with small bits of ctike mixed with it. The reversing 
gear is partly visible, and needs no further explanation 
than what has been already given. G is the outside of 
one of a pair of" guides of cast iron, the inner sides and 
edges of which were filed up very nuly to receive the 



OUR ENGINE. 253 



gun-metal block attached to the end of the piston-rod, 
to cause it to move in a perfectly straight line. These 
were supported by pillars, KK, screwed into them and 
fixed to the bed-plate. The fly-wheel was of cast iron. 
This we could not ourselves turn, as it would not go into 
our lathe, but a friend faced up the rim on all sides, and 
also the boss or nave in the centre, which gave it a nice 
finish. The rest was painted over with dark green and 
varnished, as were also all parts in which the castings 
remained in the rough state. This engine gave us fully 
one quarter-horse power, and I think would have given 
more if the grate and its fuel had been better arranged. 

In a previous page, speaking of the method we adopted 
to face up our slide-valve, I remarked that it was not the 
right method of doing it. Before concluding the present 
chapter, therefore, I will say a few words upon this 
subject, which in practical mechanics is of such extreme 
importance. 

There is hardly a machine in use which has not one or 
more flat surfaces, upon the absolute truth of which its 
action more or less depends. The face of a slide-valve 
and of its seat is but a case in point. 

Before my young readers or their parents were born, 
the only plan which was available was to use a chipping- 
chisel, and to follow it up with the file, first with very 
large and coarse ones, and then with lighter and finer, 



254 BOY ENGINEERS, 

until something approaching a level surface was obtained. 
Then, if greater accuracj- were needed, and especially if 
two level surfaces were intended to work together, they 
were coated with emery and oil, and rubbed to and fro, 
until both surfaces had attained such perfection as this 
method was calculated to produce. 

This in time made by no means a very bad surface, and 
for years was considered amply sufficient to meet all 
circumstances. It had, nevertheless, certain drawbacks, 
in the first place, the emery got imbedded in the face of 
the work, and the surfaces continued to grind and abrade 
each other long after they were supposed to have become 
quite clean. Then, again, as metal is seldom equally 
hard at all points, the emery ground the soft spots more 
than the hard ones, and consequently the surfaces were 
very rarely as perfect as they were supposed to be, 
although for want of better means they were of necessity 
used in that imperfect state. At last came to the fore 
one of our g-reatest livin^: mechanics, now known in all 
lands as Sir Joseph Whitworth. I wish I could tell you, 
boys, about his life, but I have not much doubt that, like 
all our greatest and best men, he had to fight his own 
way, and gained his present proud position by dint of 
downright (and upright) hard work. For men are only 
born mechanics in one sense, and that a limited one — 
they are born with mecluinical tastes and predilections. 



STUDY. 255 

We can't tell how it is, but Providence has giveu to 
nearly every one a liking for some one study or pursuit 
beyond all others, and if those likings are duly cultivated 
by study and diligent practice, they will profit not only 
the possessor, but the world at large. 

Now, the mistake which many of our mechanical boys 
make is this : They think mechanics so natural to them 
that hard work, especially hard reading, is unnecessary. 
The consequence is, they remain always at the same level, 
they just muddle along, playing at mechanical work, but 
they never do any good with it. 

To make the necessity of study more clear, let us 
suppose one of our young friends desires to make an 
engine or a machine to do -""ertain work. Jt is not 
enough that he has devised in his own brain a certain 
vague plan, but he must reduce this first to a very 
accurate working drawing, i.e.^ a drawing in which every 
detail is clearly set out to a certain definite scale, so that 
if the parts of the machine are made by that drawing, 
they will fit into their proper places, and work as they 
are intended to do. Now, the first question is as to size 
and then proportion. The difi'erent levers must be large 
enough in order that they may have the requisite 
strength, but they must not be too large, so as to waste 
material and add unnecessarily to the weight and to the 
cost. To determine this point alone, much theoretical 



2 S 6 BOY ENGINEERS. 

knowledge is necessary. The strength of bars of iron of 
a given size and shape must be known, both in regard to 
their ability to stand a strain tending to bend them, and 
also in many cases tending to twist them or to crush 
them. The question may arise whether a bar should be 
of a square, or oblong, or circular, or elliptical section ; 
whether steel, or iron, or brass is preferable; whether it 
should be of cast or wrought metal ; and without technical 
knowledge of the nature of these materials, the question 
must be decided by rule of thumb. What is the result? 
Perhaps you complete a four-horse engine, and the con- 
necting-rod is only strong enough for one-horse power ; 
or the expansion and contraction of the metal under 
different temperatures having been lost sight of, rivets 
loosen and plates crack ; or the moving parts are so 
unduly heavy that half the power which ought to have 
been useful is expended in giving them motion. 

An engineer must have a whole lot of this sort of 
information at his finger-ends, besides the more ordinary 
elementary knowledge of the laws which govern nature. 
He must not only be able to do certain work in a certain 
way, but to know why that way is preferable to any 
other ; and he must have an immense deal of general 
knowledge which I cannot now stay to detail. 

Then comes manual practice, the handiwork part of 
the question ; and I know of no detail of mechanical work 



FILING. 257 

which will more entirely prove the necessity of such 
practice than that now under consideration — the produc- 
tion of a level surface. Looking at a skilled mechanic 
usiog a file, any one would imagine that a very short 
apprenticeship would teach him to do the same. I can 
only say, Let him try it; and in five minutes his self- 
assertion will have taken flight, and he will have been 
taught an important lesson about his own ignorance that 
will do him a great deal of good. 

To file a level surface is, in fact, a test of skill of so 
high a class that not many will do more than barely pass 
muster in res})ect of it. The first necessity is, to have 
tools of accuracy to test the work as it proceeds ; the next, 
to have properly selected files; the third, to have a good 
scraper, sharp and well hardened, to follow the smooth 
file. 

Of tools of accuracy required, the first is a steel straight- 
edge, perfectly true and reliable ; the second, a surface- 
plate, large enough to allow the work to be tested to lie 
wholly upon it ; the third, a set-square ; the fourth, a scrib- 
ing-block. With these you are fitted up for real work. 

The straight-edge is merely a steel rule, the sides of 
which are truly parallel lo each other. Sometimes, as 
in those now imported from America, they are graduated 
in inches, with subdivisions, ranging, if required, to sixty- 
four in the inch ; sometimes they are without these. The 



858 BOV ENGINEERS. 

graduated straight-edges are about one-eighth of an inch 
wide, and may be had from one inch to two or three feet 
in length. Workmen, however, usually make their own 
of steel less than half this thickness. There are also 
straight-edges much broader — say one inch wide, with a 
rib on the back to stiffen them. These are of cast iron, 
and beautifully got up on the face, but are not nearly so 
common as the first named, except in the large sizes. 
The surface-plate is an extended or very broad straight- 
edge. They are of all sizes, from six inches square up- 
wards. They are of cast iron, ribbed on the back to keep 
them perfectly stiff, and with two handles, and feet to 
rest them on (at the back), because, being tools of perfect 
accuracy, all possible care must be taken to make them 
so stiff and strong as not to yield in the least in whatever 
position placed; and this is practically a great deal more 
difficult than the tyro would suppose. 

The set-square is of steel, and is simply a very accurate 
one cut out of sheet steel, or it is made with a broad back, 
BO as to stand upon the surface-plate without being held, 
which is often very convenient. Sometimes, however, 
this tool, instead of being of the usual form, is extended 
in width on both faces until it becomes like a sheet of 
note-paper opened to a right angle, or a long strip of card 
folded lengthwise to a right angle, and filled up in the 
angle by cast ribs, both surfaces thus forming accurate 



TOOLS OF A CCURA C V. 



259 



|||']'|' 'ITI' 'ITI' 'ITM I'J' 'I' 'I'I'I'I'I 




Fisr. 72 



•6o BOY ENGINEERS. 

snrface-plates. These are, of course, more costly than the 
ordinary steel square, and the tyro need not buy one ; but 
they are very useful in machine manipulation. These we 
will illustrate presently, as the next will perhaps hardly 
be understood without a sketch. 

This is the scribing-block or surface-gauge always 
used in connection with the surface-plate, and represented 
at F of this plate. To return, however, to the straight- 
edges : A represents the simple form, B the ribbed and 
broader kind, of which the face used for testing is here 
shown upwards. There is, in the longer ones, a flat piece 
or foot at the angle where the inclined ribs meet on pur- 
pose to stand the tool upon when not in u>e. C is a 
square made so as to stand by itself, and D a plate-square 
•^or testing broader surfaces. This may be of any size, 
and is often made much longer in proportion to its width 
than represented here. E is a surface-plate turned upside 
down upon its face to show the ribs by which it is stiffened 
at the back, and the handles by which it is lifted. Its 
three feet are also shown. 

The face of this is worked so true and so absolutely 
level, that if one is stood feet-down upon the bench, and 
another lowered upon it, the top one seems to float upon 
a thin film of air shut in between them, and can be spun 
about in all directions with a touch ; but if the upper one is 
slid on from one edge, instead of being lowered down direct 



SURFACE PLATE. 261 



from above, it will pick up the bottom one if it is lifted^ 
as they are pressed together by the weight of the atmos- 
phere, there being 110 air between them to counterbalance 
that pressure. They are made exactly iu the way presently 
to be described, by which all surfaces are now got up at the 
best engineering workshops. 

The scribing-block F, also used with the surface-plate 
upon which it stands, is perfectly level underneath, and 
the slotted plate is at right angles to the base. This plate 
carries a short slide, which works up and down smoothly 
in the slot, and through which is a screw, with a slit ur 
hole in it to receive the bent needle or scriber bc^ of hard 
steel. This can be raised, therefore, and turned about at 
pleasure, and a turn of the milled-headed nut fixes it at 
once in any position. The scriber can be changed for 
another, curved differently, and this is also so held that 
it can be lengthened or shortened at pleasure in either 
direction. There is no more useful tool to the metal- 
worker, who, indeed, cannot possibly do accurate work 
without it. 

Let us consider the uses of these several appliances. 

The first thing to do in working up a level surface is to 
see that it is not winding. For this we require two straight- 
edges like A, wide enough to stand on edge by themselves. 
Laying them in this position, one at each end of the sur- 
face to be tested, we look at them from such a position 



262 BOY ENGINEERS. 

that the eye just catches the upper edges of both, and if 
these agree, we know that at any rate in that direction 
there is no wind. We then try another position, and if 
in any one we detect the error, we must file away the sur- 
face where too high, and get the whole as true as we can 
in respect of that error. We next proceed to face up one 
side, the one which we have corrected thus far. If there 
are any projections much above the level, or if it is a 
casting, we commence by using a chisel, called a chipping- 
chisel, with which we remove all the hard skin of the iron, 
and all the larger prominences. Then with a coarse file 
we remove the rough edges left by the chisel, and work 
all down to a tolerable level, and in this operation we test 
the surface in all aa-ections witri the straight-edge, look- 
ing under it at the line of light, and noting where the 
metal needs lowering. Having done this so far as a coarse 
file will enable us, we take a bastard or second-cut file 
and go over it again ; and now, if we have one of the 
broader straight-edges like B, we rub its face with a little 
red ochre and oil to colour it, making a very thin layer 
of it ; and when we try the surface now, we shall redden 
all the high parts, and so more easily enable ourselves to 
distinguish the prominences which need the file. When the 
straight-edge will guide us no further, and the surface is 
approaching a true level, we substitute the surface-plate, 
which enables us to test at once a much greater area, using 



SCRAPER. 263 



the red ochre and oil smeared over its face as hefore. If 
the object is small, the surface-plate will be stood on the 
bench, and the work placed upon it ; if large, the surface- 
plate will itself be lifted and turned over upon the work ; 
and in either case, by a slight rubbing we mark all the high 
places. Now, however, we have to discard the coarser and 
middle-cut files in favour of the fine ones, which are to 
be used until it is found that they no longer can be made 
to localise their action sufficiently — i.e,^ that in using 
them we are in danger of filing too large a surface. The 
file is then laid aside, and the scraper used instead, or 
alternately with the file. G is a scraper, made commonly 
of an old three-square file, ground to a point, so as to 
give three somewhat curved and very keen edges, which 
must be constantly renewed by rubbing on the oil-stone 
during the progress of the work. With this tool any 
given spot that is too high can be scraped off from any 
part of the surface, and minute points attacked in the 
centre of a large surface which no file will reach. In 
use, the handle must be firmly grasped in the right hand, 
and the blade in the left, and the whole tool may need to 
be steadied by keeping the elbows close to the sides, and, 
as it were, hugging the tool. The work must be held in 
the vice, or, if this is not possible owing to the size 
or shape of it, it is to be laid on the bench, and held 
securely by nails tacked in around it. The high parts 



264 BOY ENGINEERS. 

should be scraped by square touches, a few in one direc- 
tion and a few crossing them, as shown in the sketch. 
The surface-plate must be applied again and again, and 
it will redden more and more of the surface, and this, 
when broad, can again be filed, and then probab'y a few 
points only will be reddened, and the scraping will have 
to be renewed, and so on, patiently and steadily attacking 
the higher parts until the whole surface is found on trial to 
be reddened uniformly, showing it to have been reduced 
to a true level. 

I know of no work that tests the patience like this, 
or which, when done, will give a feeling of greater satis- 
faction. 

If there are faces to be got up at right angles to this 
first, one of these must be taken in hand next ; and here 
not only has a level surface to be produced, but the right 
angle must be accurately kept. Tiie work has to be laid, 
therefore, on the surface-plate witii its finished face down- 
wards, and the square C or D ])rought. up fiom time to 
time against the face which is being worked ; and if D is 
used, it may be reddened on the vertical side, and will 
mark the part that is not truly square ; and here again 
the file and scraper must be patiently used until the 
second surface proves to be correct. Of course the time 
required will wholly depend upon the extent of surface 
and skill or the contrary of the workman ; but all this is 



REAL WORK. 165 



real work, of wliicli not one step can be shirked or even 
huiried over, and in wliicli nil lias to l)e done in re<^iilar 
order — first, one face as a starling-point; next, one of 
the sides at right angles to it ; then tlie side next to 
tliis ; and lastly, if necessary, the foiiitli side, and also 
the ends. it is, therefore, all straight sailing alter all, 
but hy no means easy work ; and unless the scra])er is 
well manag^ed there will he scratches made, and the 
surface, instead of having the beautiful mottled appear- 
ance it ought to exhibit, will not be beautiful at all, but, 
though true, it will }>e unsightly. Wiien it, comes to fa(;ing 
up the last side, and in ot.her cases to \w. described 
presently, the scribing-block is necessary. The block 
in the drawing is placed upon the surface-plate, and the 
Bcriber, which is merely curved so as to point downwards, 
is 8U{)po8ed to be feeling the thickness of the block at all 
parts as it is moved about on the snrCace-plnte under its 
j)()int. There are many (;a,ses in which this uhc of" the 
instrument is valual)le. Either the scrihing-block or 
the work may be so moved. At present we are sup[)osed, 
however, to be about to face up the fourth side of a rec- 
tangular metal bloch. It is evidently necessary, in order 
to make this side truly parallel with tiie opjiosite one, to 
file and scrape ofl' the upper suifice to a certain de[)th all 
round measured from the face already finished. F(»r this 
purpose a scriber is jiut in with a jioint bent more nearly 



«66 BOY ENGINEERS. 



at right angles, like that on the right-hand side, and while 
the work is held fast the block is slid along it to mark a 
line a short distance from the edge all round the work 
which is the guide-line for filing. The sides to be 
marked should be rubbed with chalk to make the line 
more visible, but the scriber is of hard steel, and will 
scratch any metal softer than itself sufficiently to make 
the line show ; and when the surface is levelled down to 
it, it must of course be accurately parallel to that on the 
opposite side. The scriber is thus a gauge for thickness 
and for parallelism of opposite surfaces, but it is also a 
universal gauge for which engineers find a score of uses. 

Marking work ready for the file is called lining out^ and 
in all work of accuracy has to be done with care before 
any but the preparatory processes of chipping and rough 
filing have been done. All the above are called tools of 
accuracy, and are never found, therefore, in the shops of 
the blacksmith, nor of many country workmen professing 
to keep repairing shops for engines and machinery. No 
lathe-maker, engine-builder, instrument-maker, or others 
whc have to work to accurate measure, could do anything 
without them, and their use should always be learnt by 
the amateur. 




Chapter X* 

OUR CARVING-MACHINE. 

SUPPOSE a boy's first carving-machine is the 
much-coveted and ill-used pocket-knife, which, 
if it ever did cut (which is very doubtful, for 
the steel of which it is made is of the worst 
possible quality), certainly became hopelassly blunt after 
a week's possession. As a carving tool, its capabilities 
are usually great upon bread and cheese and cake, some- 
what less upon lawful whittling of sticks, and terribly 
successful upon the edges and surfaces of school-desks, on 
which it is invariably used to carve initials and dates. 
Who does not remember the excitement caused by the 
acquisition of a new specimen of this highly-prized tool, 
especially if fitted with a dozen implements or so, all as a 
rule useless for the various purposes which they are nomi- 
nally intended to serve ? The eager eyes of the admiring 



268 £0Y ENGINEERS. 



throng of small boys allowed to inspect but not to toucb 
— the chorus of approval as each detail is successively 
opened to the view — the delicate passing of the thumb 
along the edge of the blades, accompanied by an assur- 
ance of such keenness as few rival knives can possibly 
possess? Ah! boys, we oldsters don't forget these sen- 
sations of our early years, and if we now smile at yours, 
it is not from lack of sympathy, for we should think you 
very apathetic lads if you did not evince these innocent 
excitements. But I fear experience is already dawning 
even upon some of you. A few at least of the elder among 
you have already begun to find out that one-half of the 
world gains a living by cheating the other half, and that 
pocket-knives are but insidious wares after all — the most 
pretentious being generally the worst. If there are two 
pocket-knives at five shillings each, one with a pair of 
blades only, the other with tweezers and gun-pick, cork- 
screw and reamer, and possibly with other adjuncts, you 
may be sure that the first is the best, and that the last is 
a humbug, worth nothing at all. As a rule, you will find 
that, in apparently getting the least for your money, you 
get the most ; and that if anything is to be had very 
cheap, it will prove a very dear bargain in the end. 
Generally speaking, it may be taken as a rule that good 
finish is not put upon a very common article, and this is 
perhaps specially true in the matter of knives. But you 



POCKET KNIVES. 269 



must understand what Is meant by good finish : it is not 
polish, but giood fitting. Looking down the back, you 
will see no daylight between the spring and the sides — 
no rough places ; the blades will open smoothly, without 
difficulty, and when open will not shake from side to side 
upon the rivets. There will be no sharp corners to tear 
your pockets or wound your hands, and the whole 
knife will have a finished and neat appearance, and it 
will probably be considered dear at the price demanded 
for it. 

In our pocket-knife-days we had endeavoured in a 
small way to do a little carving, but with very poor suc- 
cess. Afterwards an inspection of some carvings of oak 
that fell into our hands aroused in us an ambition to copy 
them with gouge, chisel, and mallet, and we found it on 
the whole more tedious than difficult, and, unless with 
figure subjects and elaborate floral designs, we succeeded 
in some other attempts of the kind. But we often talked 
together about the possibility of doing by machinery a 
great deal of the work then always done by hand, espe- 
cially when some simple design required to be reproduced 
in quantity, as was so frequently the case. We heard 
about that time of a copying machine that had been made 
and used in London, but we knew nothing of its details, 
and could not set off in our minds a satisfactory kind of 
apparatus. We also wanted, if possible, to contrive a 



2 7 o BOY ENGINEERS. 

machiue wliicli should rather enable us to follow any 
design of our own, and which would work quite inde- 
pendently of any pattern, which we understood was 
not the case with Jordan's machine. Our difficulty waa 
that a gouge or chisel, working either directly up and 
down or horizontally, or at any given angle, would not 
under any circumstances serve the required purpose, and 
yet gouge and chisel seemed to be the tools chiefly used 
by professional carvers, although known by other names, 
according to the forms of their cutting edges, and the 
bent or straight form of their shanks. After numerous 
experiments in this direction, we found it necessary en- 
tirely to abandon this line of proceeding, and to devise a 
machine on a completely different principle ; and we 
eventually hit upon revolving tools of such varying shapes 
as were needed. Since that time an enormous amount of 
work, not only in wood, but in metal, has been done by 
revolving cutters and drills, and this method is extending 
daily ; but in the days of which I am speaking the sys- 
tem was but just coming into notice, and was, moreover, 
not received in England with a great deal of favour, 
America in this, as in other mechanical innovations, fore- 
stalled us, there being apparently in that country less 
tenacious adherence than with us to old-established 
methods of work. The chief agent we perceived would 
be the drill, because this could be easily made of any re- 



CARVING MACHINE. 271 

quired shape, and easily renewed if it should be broken ; 
and what we chiefly had to do was to devise means either 
for moving the work about in all directions under a fixed 
drill, or to mount the drill itself in some sort of swinging 
frame, which we could so move as to cause the drill to 
traverse freely over the work, and to rise and fall as de- 
sired. This may appear a very simple thing to contrive, 
but practically we found that it required a great deal of 
thought, and not a few experiments, to enable us to carry 
the plan to a successful issue. 

I believe the first thing which gave us a hint in the 
right direction was the constantly-recurring use of the 
centre-bit, which not only serves to cut a hole through 
a board, but, when desired, to scoop out a deep or shallow 
cavity only, and this, if the tool is keen, it does with 
very great neatness, leaving in tolerably close-grained 
woods a very good surface both at the bottom and side 
of such cavity. Carrying out this a step further, we 
saw that it would be easy to bore out such cavities so 
as to intersect, or partially intersect, each other, which 
would give cavities of various external forms, of which 
the Gothic trefoil and quatrefoil were simple examples. 
These are represented in the following figures, A and B, 
while the others are all forms producible by a centre-bit 
alone without any aid from machinery, it being only 
necessary to know just the various positions for the 



373 



BOY ENGINEERS. 



point of the centre-bit, and the proper diametrical sizes 
of the latter respectively. 

In fig. 23 is shown the kind of work a centre-hit will 
do, and this plate contains but a few simple designs of 
many that can be marked oat by our mathematical 




Fl?- «3- 



yonngsters. A is a pentagon in a circle, which i* fhe 
foundation of the five-looped figure called by architects a 
cinquefoii or five-leaved design. The lines radiatinir 



DESIGNS. 273 

from the centre of the main circle to the angles are those 
on which lie the centres of the five circles which cut 
each other to form the figure, and their centres are on 
points on the circumference of the inner circle in which 
it is cut by the radiating lines. All this can he cut out 
by the same centre-bit, the inner darker circle being 
again cut out to a lower level. The outer small circles, 
the centres of which are also on the radiating lines^ 
need of course a smaller centre-bit. 

When this has been thus cut out, a five-looped recess 
will have been obtained, and, if desired, it might easily 
be inlaid with ivory if a dark wood is used, or with 
ebuuy if a light wood, as satin-wood or maple, has been 
chosen, and no one would guess it to have been carved 
by so simple and rapid a process. As a stand, for 
instance, for any small vase, or merely as a tray for 
rings, it might be made very elegant and useful, but in 
this case, the outer circle, or outside of the block, would 
be turned in the lathe, then the pentagon marked, and 
also the circles to be cut out. Next, the part between 
the hexagon and outer circle should be cut away a little, 
go that the hexagon may stand up above the level of the 
outer part, and lastly the recesses cut, which may need, 
perhaps, to be bevelled off at their upper edges with a 
very sharp chisel (used bevel downwards.) A simpler 
finish than ivory would be to line the whole recess 



a 74 ^Oy ENGJNEJUiS. 



neatly with hmI volvoL To inuk(! it, into u lirst-clttHi 
uiTuir, II tliiii |iliit(! of ivory covcrin/j; tlic luixa^on, and 
cut. t.o inulcli llui |>al,t,i!rn, n»i;;lil. he ^Uu^d all over l.lio 
top, in wliic-li <;aHo tlio wood uhuuld bo bluclc ebony or 
Home V(!ry dark wood. 

The next, (h'Ki<i^n t,o \n\ treated in a HJinihu- luiiniier 
reprcineiitH a hcxa|;<)n on a circle, with a trciCoil in.si(U; lor 
the recesHed (KiHi^^n, whicli, an lh(! eir(;U!H h(;re Icdt, Hhow, 
can hIho h(! cut, ont. willi one wize ol" C(!nt,ie-hil,. The 
generating lincH of the centre points arc ieCt, t,o hIiow (Voni 
wlnit, point.s tlie circlcH are wtruek. Thi; other trefoil de- 
Hign, marked 1), Ih in Honic rcHpcelH hcttiU', htil. haH not 
tlie hexn|;<)n ontHide it.. 'I'hin is t,he trne (jlolliie tid'oil, 
whi(th iH Ht.rnek IVoni tin; tlirec; poinlH ol" an e(j[uihit,eial 
triangU^, tht; ra,dinH of each (rirch^ Ixin^^ e<pial t.o iiall" ol' 
the Hid<^ of HU(;h trianifU;. The (h>nhle linci.s, (;onf»led wilh 
tlie Hhading, show tlu; edect. j)rodnc(!d hy hcjvellin^ oil' the 
rcccKK, the wi«lth hct.ween tlie conccnlric <!ir<deH (Icl't 
whit(!) Nhowin;; thi^ widlh ol" the hevt;! Uiiis niudi!. The 
triangle, lel'l, to show tlu; mode of Hkctoliini^ t.he d(isii;n, 
W(»iild, <d' ('oursc, bo cut. wholly away by the centre-bit. 
The onl.sitlc double circle nii^dit here! reprcHeni, a neatly 
rounded heading; cut in the latlu! round the edye, or 
merely a Ixivelled ed;j;c! (bevelled (lUl.wurdH). 

Lastly, w(^ hav(^ in (J a (jualrefoil, of vvhi(;h the centroH 
ure llie an;j;Ies of llie included xpinre, the radius ecpiallin;^^ 



DESIGNS. 275 



half any one aide of such square. TIu'h worked witli a 
lar^e coritre-hil, would H(;rv<;, jxitliu))-!, uh a hI-jukj for four 
litlJo ^laHH(;H t,o coiituiii viol(;(,H, or o;i a hUII \\i\'^i',y Hcal*;, 
ftH a Hlarid for four (•/^»^-(M1|jh. Now, all tiiCHC arc UHiially 
done ii: iJie lallie, cut oui. and woikcd by Hpecial apparalUM, 
of whicli the (tceentric (;ijlt,<;r Ht.andH pre-eminent; bul/, 
writing for boyn, my dcHire in t,o hliow l>y wliat Kimj)le 
ineJUiH even dcHi;.MiH of" a eomjdicut.'d iial,iir(! ean 1x5 
iiiiulf; if" hkiil and in^eniiit.y are ex<:r(;iHed in Uieir fjro- 
du(;t,ion. Tlie lathe apparatUH will, IjcyD/id a douhl,, mulic 
cleaner and more /IniHlied work, but it in not only (ixpen- 
Bive, but alhio dtdicnte, a/i<l it needH mor(! careful UHa^(; 
than boyH are w(jnt to ^ivc, whercan tliiw \h cheaply and 
eaHily to be done by any lad who knowH how to hliiup(;n 
liiw tf^oln and hh<; th(;m. 

'J"hi; eent;e-bii will do ahnoHt any receHHed work of" which 
the outline Ih f"orm(;d by the inter.-;eetion of cireleH, and in 
which the wideH of Hiieh ((teeHHCH are v<;rtieal. Tin; diaw- 
baok to itH UHe iw th<! point, which, (hi the other hand, Ih ho 
neccMMary to aHHiht the workman in phicin^r hiw circlcH cor- 
rectly that, it cannot eanil}- be omiit,ed. The pfnni,, how- 
ever, of an (ordinary centr<;-bit, when required for Huch 
work, may be Hhortetied ho an only jiirt t,o hold th(; cutf,erH 
in poHition. After th(j whole ban been, how(;ver, rou((hed 
out, a cutter of Kimilnr foiin, witlnjut any point, will nerve 
to finish the b<jtt,om ui' t,he recchH, and will ol>l iterate t,ho 



aje BOY ENGINEERS. 

holes made in the centre of each circle, and level the whole 
of the reness uniformly. 

I am now writing to a great extent in advance of our 
actual work, and shall continue to do so, as it seems a 
pity to stop short of the developments of our primitive 
means for carving and ornamenting work by means of 
revolving cutters and drills. Our first machine was similar 
to the drilling apparatus that has been elsewhere described 
(fig. 22 M.), and was fixed upon the lathe-bed and driven 
by a cord from the fly-wheel in the usual way. The 
spindle passed through two collars, and pressure was 
obtained by hand, or by hanging a weight on the lever, 
so as to leave both hands at liberty to manage the work. 
It was made entirely of wood, the holes in the projecting 
arm being bushed with brass. A good deal of lubrication 
was required to prevent wear, owing to the rate at which 
the drill revolved ; for we soon found that the faster we 
could drive it, the better was the work produced. When 
at full speed, with a flat ended and a keen drill, we could 
hollow out a box in pretty hard wood in a few minutes, 
moving the work about in all directions as rapidly as 
possible, so as to cut all parts at once to about the same 
level, and even square and oblong boxes could thus be 
cut out of the solid, only needing a little work with a 
sharp chisel to clean out the corners, which a revolving 
cutter could not, of course, reach. The practical fault 



DRILLING MACHINE, 277 

of our drilling machine was that the platform was too 
confined. There was only space between the drill and the 
pedestal, or bracket which supported it, for a very small 
object. We had, however, proved satisfactorily to our- 
selves that a drill could be used for work of this kind ; 
all that remained was to modify the apparatus, and vary 
the shapes of the drills, to render the whole more gene- 
rally efficacious. There was no occasion to provide for 
a great extent of vertical movement, and with a deeply 
grooved pulley on the drill-spindle, we could depress it 
six inches without the cord slipping off, especially when 
the horizontal part of it, between the driving-pulley and 
the guide, which turned the cord downwards, was of 
ample length. 

The next point of consideration was the limit to the 
position of the drill-spindle, which had of necessity thus 
far only a vertical movement in its bearings, so that no 
undercutting of the work was possible. 

To show the steps by which we advanced, I have given 
a second drawing at N, by which it will be seen that we 
pivoted the part which carried the bearings and the drill, 
80 as to be able to place it at an angle in respect of the 
work, and keeping the latter still upon a horizontal table, 
we were thus enabled to undercut it at pleasure, and to 
get under the parts which we desired should stand up 
clear of the general surface. 



278 BOY ENGINEERS. 

Tiie next step was a very iiiijjortant one, and ;;ave ug 
Keveral advantages. It is represented at OP. Here, it 
will be observed, the bracket which carries the drill is 
pivoted on a horizontal arm which is slotted, and a bolt 
goes through the slot into the top of the pillar, which 
is the main standard of the machine. Tliis gives a 
radial motion round the pillar, and the drill will 
describe the arc of a circle, the centre of which is the 
bolt, and the arm can by means of the slot be 
shortened when desired, so as to bring the drill-spindle 
in close proximity to the pillar P, or extended when the 
work is of larger area. The latter now has, it will be 
Been, plenty of room, instead of being confined to a small 
space as in the first drawing. This radial movement 
was itself also an accurate guide for drilling round a 
circle, and was frequently convenient merely for drill- 
ing a circle of holes in a plate, as well as for the special 
purposes of ornamental carving, for which it was devised. 

It will, upon consideration, be evident that a mere 
slotted bar will not necessarily move steadily round a 
central bolt, but would be apt to slip along it length- 
wise. In the slot, therefore, is shown, just above, a slid- 
ing piece of brass, which, strictly speaking, ought to be 
chamfered or cut on each side with a V-shaped groove, 
and the groove or slot in the arm ought to have been so 
shjipod as to fit into this. Of course we had no means 



DRILLING MACHINE. 



279 



to do this, nor do I thiuk we knew much about such a 
plan, but we manured something that answered almost 
as well. We got a piece of solid brass, which we squared 




VlfrM- 



up, and drilled in the centre for the main bolt to hold it 
on the top of the pillar, and which is represented here by 
R, and we then prepared a top and bottom plate, S and 
T, to be attached to the block when the latter was in 



«8o BOY ENGINEERS. 

place in the slotted arm. The lower plate was considered 
a fixture when in place, but the other was fixed by two 
screws instead of four. The block was a shade less 
thick than the depth or thickness of the arm, so that 
when this top plate was screwed tightly down, it fixed the 
slide securely in any desired part of the slot, but when it 
was necessary to slide the arm backwards or forwards, 
the slight loosening of the two screws, which were at 
opposite angles, sufficed to free it. We put two ping 
in the other two corners of this plate to save having to 
manipulate four screws, and the pins were quite sufficient 
to assist in retaining the plate in its place. 

By the time we had made these alterations and 
additions, it became evident to us that we must not 
depend on the lathe as the foundation of our carving 
Diacliine, which, thus modified, was of too large a size to 
be easily mounted on the lathe-bed. We therefore set 
to work at a stand, and made our carving apparatus an 
independent machine altogether, with its own fly-wheel 
and treadle. We pressed it into service, however, for 
ordinary drilling purposes, and very handy indeed we 
found it. 

With a perfectly flat, or a plain, round ended drill at 
a high speed, we could face over a block of boxwood, and 
give it a perfectly level surface, simply moving it about 
by hand all over the platform on which it rested ; for 



DRILLING MACHINE. 281 

this, however, it was necessary to lower the drill to 
a certain determined distance, which was done by the 
simple means now to be described, and was another 
invention of which necessity was the parent. 

The upper part of the drill-spindle above the top brass 
was cut with a rather fine screw thread, and upon this 
was a nut rounded off somewhat below and case- 
hardened, and upon the bearing rested a steel collar or 
washer, also hardened, which was added to protect the 
brass from wear when the nut rested on it, because it 
would still be rapidly revolving, and would soon have 
ground its way into the brass. The spring E, coiled 
loosely about the spindle, and abutting on the lower 
brass, held up the drill when it was not pressed down by 
the lever handle. The nut V was the stop, which could, 
of course, be easily placed in any position on the spindle, 
which could no longer descend when it came into contact 
with the opposing steel washer. This contrivance proved 
very convenient in drilling ordinary holes to a certain 
depth. 

When the drill-spindle was thrown into an inclined 
position for undercutting, the pressure of the lever was 
of course partially removed from the top of it, so that it 
ceased to act with the same force; but this was easily 
remedied by hooking on to the end of it a band of India- 
rubber, or an ordinary coiled spring, such as is used by 



tSa BOY ENGINEERS. 



bell-hangers, and of which it was easy to regulate the 
tension. 

Nos. I to lo of this figure show the drills we made to 
use with this machine. Nos. i, 2, 3, are undercutting, and 
^vith them this work could be done without turning the 
spindle out of its vertical position. No. 4 is also an 
undercutter, but leaves the bottom flat, and makes a 
rectangular groove below the surface similar to that 
formed by a grooving-plane ; but in combination with the 
circular movement of the whole drilling-frame upon the 
upright pillar, it will cut such groove all round the inside 
of circular work. No. 5 is a simple round-ended drill, 
useful for roughing down broad surfaces to be afterwards 
levelled by a flat-ended drill, or for making semicircular 
grooves and hollows. No. 6 is the ordinary centre-bit, of 
which several sizes are needed ; and No. 7 is a similar tool 
without the centre-point, and is intended to finish work be- 
gun by the ordinary bit. No. 8 is for simple holes or to drill 
angular grooves; and No. 10, of which there must be two 
or three sizes, is a narrow tool, sharp on its extreme edge and 
on the sides, and very slightly wider at the end thau it is a 
little above. Its use is to drill out long narrow grooves, 
for permitting strips of wood of any desired colour to be 
inlaid, technically called " strin>;ing.'^ It is evident, that 
even for such simple work as has been just described, a drill- 
ing instrument like the above is a valuable addition to the 



DRILLING MACHINE. 283 

workshop. Inlaying, especially, is a ready means of 
ornamenting, at slight cost, the woods which have no 
special beauty of their own, and modern taste has renewed 
the old device of running narrow strings or lines of the 
parli-coloured ornamental woods round the panels of 
furniture made of plain white pine, giving the articles au 
elegant and highly-finished appearance, without any con- 
siderable addition to the cost of the plainer material. 
The drill marked 9 allows of no longitudinal traverse, and 
will not form a continuous beading, as by its rotation it 
would constantly destroy its own work. It is used for 
forming a succession of rounded prominences or beads, 
the drill being lifted after each has been formed, and 
lowered again upon the adjacent part of the material. 
A continuous beading can only be cut by a revolving 
cutter like No. 9 split into two halves lengthwise, and 
this has to be carried up one side and down the other, 
so as to cause the two cuts to meet exactly on the centre 
of the ridge thus formed. There is not much need to 
nse such a tool, however, because a straight beading is 
more easily made by an ordinary beading-plane, such as 
carpenters are in the habit of using, and circular-headings 
can be cut readily in the lathe with a tool like No. 9 
held quite still upon the rest. 

As I have had to speak of string-courses of inlaying, 
concerning which, I daresay, many of my readers have 



284 BOY ENGINEERS. 



wondered how both strip and groove are cut so neatly, I 
will here let them into the secret. The groove is made 
by a tool exactly like the ordinary marking-gauiie of the 
carpenter, but instead of a mere point capable of scratching 
a line, it has a keen-edged cutter projecting from the 
stock, which can be made to stand out farther and farther 
as the groove gets deeper. By this simple tool a groove 
is cut which is everywhere exactly parallel to the edge of 
the frame or panel, or part to be inlaid. Tbe narrow strip 
of veneer is cut with a similar tool, but in this is a mere 
knife-edge instead of a chisel. In soft wood a similar knife- 
edged gauge is just run round the work, in order to make a 
clear cut through the fibres which stand across the path of 
the intended groove. Without such preparation for the 
chisel-ended cutter, the latter would not cut with sufficient 
neatness, however skilfully used, but when it had to pass 
across the grain of the wood, it would tear up the fibres 
and completely spoil the surface. Any one can make such 
cutting-gauges, and they are useful for other purposes as 
well as stringing and inlaying. 

Now it was by no means our intention to limit our 
machine to such work as that described. We wanted it to 
assist in absolute carving of any form or ohject, in addition 
to mere recessing and drilling. For this purpose, the 
chief requisite ap[e;i;ed to be the power to move the work 
itself, or the drill, or both, to a much greater extent than 



FOLIAGE. 



285 



could be done as it then stood. Analysing a drawing of 
foliage, for instance, it was evident that it consisted of 
straight lines and curves, but the latter in far the larger 
proportion. Taking as a sample a vine-leaf, it would, if 
blocked out, be represented like fig. 25, where I 




kro^) 



D 
Fig. 25. 



have supposed it required to cut such a leaf on the sur- 
face of a wooden block, so that it shall stand up in bold 
relief. The lines ABCDE, drawn round it and en- 



286 BOY ENGJNEEHS. 

closing it, show that all outside these may be freely cut 
away without any fear of injury to the proposed carving. 
A carver would, in fact, block out his work thus with 
chisel and mallet, and so would an engraver. A round 
or flat-ended drill might be therefore made to perform 
this duty very easily, the block being moved about by 
hand on a fixed platform, ami in this way the outer por- 
tion would very quickly be sunk to a sufficient depth below 
the general level. Still moving the block by hand, the 
next step would be to drill out the spaces inside the first 
lines, and to map out the leaf more nearly to shape. 
This would be done with a smaller drill, probably No, lo 
of those shown, which, if keen and working with great 
speed, would make a well-defined cut, and edge round the 
leaf very neatly. Then would follow an under-cutting 
drill to take ofi" the perpendicular surface now existing 
round the leaf, and level it off below, so that it would 
stand up more in relief from the block out of which it 
was cut. For all these operations the work would be 
kept upon the horizontal platform. If still greater relief 
were needed, or any part required to be cut clean away 
from the block, as, for instance, part of the stem or a 
tendril, or even a portion of the leaf, so as to admit light 
below it, the block might be turned upon edge and a 
proper sized and shaped drill passed through under the 
leaf or stem. But up to this time we have considered 



CARVING, 287 

the drill as only cutting a level surface wherever it was 
in action, because it would be pressed down upon the 
work by the weighty lever or spring, until checked in its 
descent by the nut, the position of which, as already 
explained, decides its downward traverse. 

In cutting, however, the upper surface of a leaf, it is 
necessary to be able to deepen at pleasure the cut of the 
drill so as to cause it to carve out correctly the various 
depressions, while it must be also able to pass lightly 
and almost without cutting the higher portions of the 
object. In Jordan's carving machine, and still more 
recently in the Medallion machine, the descent of the 
cutting tool is regulated by a pattern, upon the surface of 
which a dummy or blunt drill rests, and as this rests 
or rises and falls it causes the tool at work upon the 
adjacent block to follow its movements exactly, and the 
pattern is thus copied with the utmost fidelity. 

But ours was not to be a copying machine if we could 
possibly help it, and consequently no pattern was to be 
used to guide the path of the drills. We found it 
necessary to discard the weight or spring altogether, and 
to depress the lever by hand. This left us but one hand 
at liberty to move the block about, but with a light one 
(and we did not attempt heavy work) we did not find 
this create much difficulty, and we could cut deeply at 
pleasure j and by easing-- off the pressure to suit the 



288 BOY ENGINEERS. 

promineuces, we soon found it possil)le, with merely a 
round-ended drill, to pass over the surface and follow 
all the sinuosities of a leaf with very great ease and 
correctness, and we amused ourselves very extensively and 
became very expert at this novel occupation. 

Beginning with the simpler leaves, we advanced to 
groups of complicated foliage. Very frequently we could 
not wholly work these with drills, and had to call in the 
aid of one or two carving tools to help us, but as far as 
possible we made the drills do the work. We found, 
moreover, that, as a general rule, a round-ended drill 
would accomplish nearly all the details, owing to the 
fact of there being so few right lines or level surfaces in 
nature, all objects exhibiting more or less curvature of 
outline and of surface. 

Since our day fretwork has become a fashion with the 
amateur world, ladies included, but alone there is a same- 
ness about it which soon makes it uninteresting. In fact, 
it is already not nearly so general as it was a few years 
ago, for people soon tire of mere tracery of perforated 
patterns, unless they are obliged to do such work to pro- 
vide food and clothing, when it no longer becomes an 
amateur pursuit. To make such work worthy of the 
labour spent upon it, it should be carved instead of being 
left flat, and nothing will do this so nicely as revolving 
drills, because fretwork is very delicate and easily broken, 



LEA VES. 289 

and the pressure of a drill can be made as light as possible. 
Moreover, with a fine-pointed drill the most delicate lines 
can be followed, such as those which indicate the eleo-ant 
venation of leaves. These veins, by the by, it may be as 
well to state, are not generally grooves on the surface, as 
they are so often rendered by amateur carvers, but elevated 
ribs, being, in point of fact, minute branches containing 
sap, which by their means and by means of the thin 
membrane connecting them, is exposed to the action of 
the atmosphere. The leaf membrane is for the most part 
double, embracing these capillaries of the branches 
between the two surfaces. The circulation of the sap is 
in this way very like that of the blood in the human 
subject, which is brought by the given capillaries to the 
skin and then returned to the heart to be renovated — the 
renovating power being the oxygen which it meets with 
in its passage through the lungs. But I must not stay to 
dwell here upon this detail of a most interesting subject. 
The wood-carver secures first of all the main features of 
the subject in hand. If he has to carve a group of leaves, 
he will block out, in the first place, the outline of the whole 
mass, so that he may be able at once with mallet and 
chisel to cut away all the wood outside it, which he will 
reduce to a uniform surface or nearly so. He will then 
see what are the main portions to be similarly mapped 
out, avoiding for the time all minor details, but always 



«9o £0 Y ENGINEERS. 

being on his guard to leave plenty of substance, because 
if the wood is once cut away too much, it is next to 
im})ossible to restore it. Of course, before he takes even 
the first step he will have carefully outlined his work so 
far as it is possible to do so, but there are lesser details 
upon the faithful representation of which the beauty of 
the finished work will depend which have to be cut with 
no other guide than the eye. 

A fast-revolving drill gives a charm to this kind of 
work, by allowing the details to be traced out as by a 
pencil, for each line can be followed with great rapidity 
as well as accuracy ; although, if the drill is a fixture, the 
work itself has to be moved about under it, instead of 
the tool itself being movable, which would be the more 
natural and more convenient method. It has often struck 
the writer (and our inventive readers can work out the 
idea and make a fortune, as, of course, inventors always 
do), that a movable drill is not by any means impossible. 
We all get our hair brushed in these days by revolvmg 
brushes, feeling as if hair and scalp were being carried 
clean away, and the brush, while still at high speed, is 
moved about in all directions ; the driving band being ao 
elastic strap of india-rubber. Our undeveloped notion is 
a similar apparatus, but driving a drill instead of a brush, 
which drill is to be carried about the work as required 
while continuing its rapid rotation. The drill, however. 



REVOLVING CUTTERS. agi 

would hardly answer if to be held by the hand alone. It 
ought to be at the end of a horizontal arm, which arm 
should have at the end a universal joint to enable it to 
move with equal facility in all directions. Just work it 
out, boys, and we don't object to going shares in the 
profits of the invention. 

Revolving cutters are now (1877) quite the order of 
the day. The wood-planing machine, for instance, is but 
a roller armed with sharp knives, something like those 
of a lawn-mower, which are made to revolve at tremendous 
speed, while the plank is caused to travel underneath it ; 
and wheel-cutting for clockmakers and others is per- 
formed by little circular cutters of the form of the spaces 
between the teeth, which are thus, as it were, sawn out 
with great truth and rapidity. Twist-drills are channelled 
in a similar way, and also taps, and reamers, and fluted 
drills; and the slots in long shafts are drilled out while 
the tool or the work is made to traverse lengthwise. 
Revolution and rotation is now the rule, and even human 
events are often said, not without reason, to revolve in 
a circle, and thus to repeat themselves periodically. 

I dare say our boys may have noticed that on the soft 
wood-carvings done chiefly in Switzerland, but also in 
many other districts where fir and similar material is 
available, a good deal of the ground-work is done with 
a kind of matted pattern, which has the effect of giving 



«93 BOY ENGINEERS. 



greater relief to the smooth leaves and other sharply cut 
work. This is not carved, but is merely indented by a 
punch, on the end of which is generally a star-like 
pattern, or other simple device, which suffices to give a 
dead surface easily and quickly produced, and sufficiently 
eflFective for the purpose. 

There are many devices of this kind used both on wood 
and metal, and with respect to the latter more especially, 
the punch, or the roller with a pattern on the outside, 
which is a perpetual punch, is largely used to produce 
mouldings, scrolls, and headings, which give such finish 
and handsome appearance to the work. The more elevated 
parts are then generally burnished and lacquered to a 
condition of great brilliancy, and the recessed parts are 
dulled by the action of an acid which partially corrodes 
the surface, thus giving the contrast so necessary in all 
such works of art. The home of first-class work in metal 
is, bejond a doubt, Birmingham, but a good deal is also 
done in London, especialW by those who make the various 
articles used in the decoration of churches. 

Before dismissing the subject of our carving-machine, 
I may add a few words upon carving in the ordinary way, 
because the work is one of great interest, and boys who 
are naturally fond of lathes and mechanical apparatus, 
and accustomed to carpentry, ought by no means to 
neglect it. 



ARTISTIC CARVINGS. 293 

As a lesson, there is one special advantage in this art, 
which may be regarded as a development of drawing. 
None will make good workmen but those who are in the 
habit of observing natural objects with close attention. 
Again and again the carver must go to nature as his 
model and copy. There is some special peculiarity in 
every leaf and tree-stem, and almost in every separate 
blade of grass — constant variety, and unvariable beauty 
of outline as well as of surface. An autumn leaf has 
not the form of the same leaf growing in all the vigour 
of its summer health and vitality. The beauties of early 
morning are modified by the action of the mid-day sun, 
and change their aspect without losing a particle of their 
loveliness under the softer hues of eventide. There is the 
distinct beauty of youth and of age, and the well-trained 
eye of the artist recognises all these, and with brush or 
chisel, as the case may be, gives permanent expression to 
the truths which have become impressed on his mind. 
The boy who tries his hand at carving learns to estimate 
all the natural beauties of our lovely world at a far 
higher value than he who cares not to represent them in 
this wav. The one observes where the other only sees., 
and to the first nature offers daily fresh delights which 
the other has not the soul to feel, much less to enjoy. 
Therefore, if only to open up for themselves new sources 
of pleasure of the highest kind, I would recommend every 



394 SO Y ENGINEERS. 



boy who can handle gouge and chisel with ordinary skill 
to turn his attention also to the art of carving. For 
this, however, he must, in the first place, learn to draw, 
which, as a mechanical engineer, he will find a matter of 
necessity ; but, then, for the latter purpose, the chief of 
his work will be done by the aid of mathematical instru- 
ments, whereas the delineation of foliage and natural 
objects will require almost exclusively skill in what is 
called freehand drawing. 

The amount of skill, however, in the latter, which is 
required in order to commence the work of carving, is not 
very great, inasmuch as the power of delineating nature 
by pencil and carving tool will increase with practice, and 
in learning to carve, the pupil will daily increase his 
knowledge of drawing. 

But what used at one time to be considered drawing 
is very difierent to the art as it is now taught. 

There is no longer prevalent the shorn piece, done in a 
great measure by the master, which used to be taken 
home to show to admiring friends in the school holidays. 
Some impossible landscape out of perspective, and so un- 
like any terrestrial features of ordinary landscape, that it 
would have stood with equal truth for a sketch of some- 
body's estate in the planet Jupiter. All this style of art 
has given place to accurate outlines of simple objects, or 
shaded drawings thoughtfully and truthfully carried out. 



DRA WING. 295 



Many a lad who in old days used to bring home draw- 
ing prizes, and who imagined that he could paint as well 
as draw, could not have accurately delineated a sprig of 
oak leaves or a simple weed ; but now that photography 
has taught us how to represent our object with fidelity, 
and now that Ruskin and others have stood up so man- 
fully for truth instead of conventionalism in art, we 
have arrived at the proper kind of drawing to serve the 
purpose of the carver. We have learnt to draw simple 
outlines with the nearest attainable approach to perfect 
accuracy. 

Supposing our young reader to have acquired the power 
to trace on a block of wood a leaf or a group of leaves, 
he is in a position to go a step further and carve a like- 
ness of it with the proper tools. These tools have divers 
names and are sufficiently numerous, but practically they 
are nearly all of them gouges and chisels. The shanks of 
them, however, are longer than those ordinarily used by 
the carpenter or joiner, and they are variously bent to 
enable them to reach into corners, and to undercut where 
necessary, and, in short, to do what a straight tool could 
not. 

They are sold in sets, and are not very expensive ; and 
if the student will really set to work with dogged deter- 
mination to persevere, the result of his labours will 
amply repay the outlay, which is more than can be said 



296 BOY ENGINEERS, 

for many of the pursuits in which amateur workmen 
indulge. 

Having, as already described, blocked out the work by 
cutting to the extreme outline of the wliole design, the 
next step will be to gauge the thickness of it, so as to 
find out to what depth from the surface any given parts 
may be lowered, and this depth is to be marked upon 
the side or edge of the block. Then this part must be 
blocked out like the first, and lowered as far as neces- 
sary, the main tools as yet being a mallet and chisel or a 
mallet and gouge. But after a while, these will have 
to be laid aside, and one of the regular carver's tools 
taken up, and you will learn that these are exceedingly 
sharp, and must be kept so, and that to have the left 
hand in such a position as to receive a cut if the right 
hand should slip, is not exactly the most sensible thing 
to do. I ought, by the by, to have told you that the 
work is commonly held by the carver's screw. This is 
a short bar of iron with a conical pointed screw at one 
end, which is inserted in the under side of the block of 
wood to be carved, and it has about three inches of the 
other end screwed, and a hand-nut fitted to it. This end 
is put through a hole in the bench, and a washer being 
slipped on it, the hand-nut is screwed tight. In this way 
the wood will be very securely held, and both hands will 
be left at liberty to guide the tool. 



CAR VING. 297 



The whole further operation will consist of scooping 
out and cutting the hollowed parts and rounding the con- 
vex ones with such of the tools as seem the best suited to 
the purpose. You will find the gouges all of different 
curvature, some almost as flat as chisels, others curved to 
nearly the half circle. Then you will find tools like a 
folded slip of paper, or the V-tools for cutting screws in 
soft wood, and others like ordinary chisels, but of vary- 
ing width. There is no rule as to which is to be used 
They should all lie before you in a row, so that you see 
at once the shapes of the cutting edges, and after finish- 
ing what you can with any one tool, you should always 
lay it again in its own place in the row, so as to know 
in a moment where to put your hand upon it. 

The best way is to range them in order of width, 
which will also be, generally speaking, in the order of 
curvature ; the broader gouges being the least curved, and 
the narrower ones more so. Order in mechanical work 
of all kinds is most valuable in saving of time and 
trouble. 

It will have to be remembered always, that, whether in 
carpentry, turning, or carving, sharp edges must be left, 
except where the nature of the design absolutely necessi- 
tates rounding them off; and wherever this is a necessity, 
the rounding must be evidently done for a set purpose. 

Hence the inexpediency of using sand or glass paper 



298 BOY ENGINEERS. 



to finish work to a smooth surface. All should be clean 
cut with very keen tools, which will leave such a face as 
can be produced in no other way. 

If a bit of Caen stone is to be had, the young carver 
can exercise his powers also upon this. It is cut and 
carved much in the same way as wood, but finished 
with scrapers of various shapes ; it is very soft, easy to 
cut into any desired shape, and looks exceedingly well 
when finished. This substance can be turned, and marble 
also ; but even in the case of round pillars it is seldom 
done in that way, as practical hands will round it per- 
fectly by hand- tools alone. 

A visit to any stone-mason*s where best work is done, 
especially a visit to ecclesiastical decorators, such as Cox 
of London, will prove highly interesting to our young 
friends if they can obtain admission. There they will see 
Jfirdan's carving-machine actually at work, and will see 
also plenty of skilled workmen carving the most elaborately 
undercut work by hand alone, both in wood and stone, 
including the hardest marbles and granite. Such a visit 
will show him how expeditiously, as well as skilfully, 
woi k of this kind is done by those who are well practised 
in the art, and what exquisite work results from the 
skilled manipulation of a few simple tools. They will 
probably go back to their own work with a just sense of 
its inferiority ; and if they are boys of the best metal, they 



PLUCK AND PERSEVERANCE, 299 



will be roused to greater diligence, and more than ever 

determine to excel. 

I would not give a farthing for a boy who would go 
bank from an inspection of such work to give up his own 
feeble attempts, and thus confess himself unable to do 
what hundreds are doing every day. Unless a lad has 
spirit enough to contend against difficulties, until he com- 
pels them to yield to his energies, he can never become a 
great man, and the most he will do is to crawl through life 
without doing good to his fellow-creatures, or executing 
any but the most unimportant work that falls to the lot 
of mortals. A cat without energy would never catch a 
mouse, but she ought to have no dinner till she can per- 
form that simple feline duty. 

Although in this chapter I have passed from the 
capabilities of a home-made machine to the capabilities 
and actual doings of skilled workmen, I may return so far 
to the actual subject of this volume as to say, that we 
executed carved work, of probably no great excellence, 
ourselves, besides what we accomplished with the drilling 
apparatus. Moreover, we set to work wisely, so far as 
regards copying from nature. I remember an attempt, 
not wholly unsuccessful, at a bunch of grapes with a few 
vine leaves and tendrils, which formed the base of a 
bracket-shaped stand for a clock, and was duly presented 
to our father on his birthday. Being carved in oak, we 



300 BOY ENGINEERS. 

had difficulties to contend with besides those resulting 
from a very insufficient stock of tools. I am afraid that 
we also found a difficulty in respect of keeping the grapes 
long enough to serve as our model until the work was 
done. Like lads, though, we managed it after a fashion 
of our own. We began the bunch at one end, and as fast 
as we roughed out a few of the berries so as to guide our 
efforts, we forthwith ate tliem, so that by the time the 
last grape was cut in wood the bunch had wholly vanished. 
I have known an artist of maturer years carry out this 
principle by eating one half of a ripe peach while he 
painted the other, a representation of the former not being 
required in the picture upon which he was engaged ; so 
that I may conclude that old boys and young ones have 
very similar tastes, and are equally disinclined to let good 
fruit be wasted, so long as it can be made to serve the two- 
fold purpose of a model of still life and food for life that 
never is still. 

The vine tendril and smaller branches gave us a good 
deal of trouble, as they were carved in full relief. We 
first drilled underneath, until we were able to insert the 
point of a small saw, and thus removed the superfluous 
material, leaving the stem or tendril standing, for a part 
of its length, clear of the wood beneath it. We «hen, 
partly with a penknife and partly with a rat-tailed file, 
rounded off the part, and finished it to represent the 



SIV/SS CARVINGS. 301 

natural stem. "Wherever the latter was so thin as this, 
we took care to leave it supported here and there, instead 
of cutting it quite free. This is always done in work of 
this nature. 

Accurate delineation and clean cutting are the char- 
acteristics of good work. Glass-paper must be very 
sparingly used, as it rounds oflf angles and edges, which 
ought to be left sharply defined. If the cheap Swiss 
carvings, now so common, are examined, they will be found 
very inferior, not so much owing to any neglect of clean 
cutting, but in having hardly any relief, and in being 
carelessly worked. Cheaply, because rapidly executed, the 
material is thin and poor; it is cut out with a small saw 
into something like leafage, and the upper surface is 
hollowed variously with a sharp gouge, and a few ofi'hand 
angular cuts are made to stand for a representation of the 
leaf veins. So far as they go, they are clever, and far 
cheaper than they could be made in England ; but after all 
they are deceptions, and not accurate representations of 
nature, and, except for our younger readers, should not be 
taken as models worthy of being copied. They come into 
the same category as fretwork, which is a mere pattern uj 
nothing^ useful in its way, but not such as the eye of an 
artist can dwell upon with pleasure. If our readers can 
visit some old church, or some church of our own times 
designed by a first-class architect, and carried out by 



joa BOY ENGINEERS. 

workmen capable of artistic carving, they will at once 
recognise the beauties of high-class work. They will note 
how massive it is as a whole, and yet how delicate in 
detail. They will see also that there is no mere shallow 
surface-work, but that all is in high relief, and well under- 
cut, and yet that sufficient support is left everywhere to 
render tl)e work durable, and prevent the lighter portions 
from being easily broken off. All this is characteristic of 
work done previous to the Reformation in the time of 
Henry VIII. and Elizabeth. After that date art degene- 
rated sadly. Instead of being deeply cut, carved decora- 
tions were merely superficial, and correct representations 
of natural objects no longer occupied the attention of the 
carver. Happily, such work is again dying out, and there 
is a widely spreading taste for what is well called " high 
art." 

It is not, however, easy to state in so many words in 
what high art actually consists as bearing specially upon 
the subject of carving. It is not every one who recognises 
the difference between what is commonplace and what 
is really artistic. A simple leaf may bear tlie first char- 
acter, and it may equally bear the second ; and it is the 
same with a group of leaves or flowers as of other objects. 
The Alps are grand, the hills of our own land are beauti- 
ful, the hedgebauk worthy of the artist's liighest skill. 
The hand of Nature delineates and colours each alike 



CARVING AND FRETWORK. 303 

aristically ; all alike are lovely, but each has distinctive 
beauties. A representation of the last may be as high art 
as a representation of the first, as it is not the subject but 
the manner in which it is treated which characterises the 
result. 

The best way is to seek out as studies what are known 
and acknowledged to be works of real excellence, especi- 
ally the carved work to be found in churches of Early 
English, Decorated, and Early Perpendicular style. Get a 
taste for work of this kind, and you will not long be con- 
tent to carve bread-platters and butter-dishes and book- 
racks. 

At the same time there is no harm in working at these 
lesser objects to get into the way of using carving or turn- 
ing tools. They are useful if not artistic, and admiring 
friends will be glad to possess these specimens of your 
handiwork. But don't stop at such as these, and don't 
be content to copy other people's work. Work out, if you 
like, a sheet of fretwork, designed at the small sum of one 
shilling, and then put the sheet in the fire, and set to 
work to design from real leafage, which Nature will pre- 
sent you with at all times free gratis, and without even a 
stamped envelope for reply. 

Now, I dare say some of you young fellows are inclined 
to cut all this prosaic stuff of mine. You want to get 
ahead, and to hear what other mighty works the jiouug 



304 BOY ENGINEERS. 

engineers accomplished. Well, I don't care much 
about that. You can turn over, but I hope sometimes 
you will '' hark back," as fox-hunters say, and have 
another look at the despised pages ; for I should not 
have written them if I were not certain they are full of 
Bound advice. 

You know the old saying, Set a thief to catch a thief, 
or make the biggest poacher in the parish head-keeper, 
because old evil experiences will help him in his new 
sphere. Well, we have had our own evil experiences, too, 
in the carving line. We thought ourselves mighty clever 
with our fretwork and platters, and such-like artistic 
Bport ; but it was like poaching — it would not bear the 
truthful and pure light of day. We got entranced by 
seeing some real honest work, and at last we chucked all 
else aside, and said to ourselves, *' We will henceforth aim 
at the highest, and get as near it as we can." That is all 
I want you lads to do. Get a noble ambition to excel, 
and you will not long be found among the slugs and 
hoddidods (as youngsters call the snails), those slimy 
creeping things that leave their mark, indeed, wherever 
they go; but it is just that kind of mark which ought to 
be obliterated as soon as possible. Boys, and men too, 
leave marks oftentimes of a very similar character, which 
we need not stay to particularise ; but your old friend 
would fain stir you up to leave behind you such marks of 



TRUE NOBILITY. 305 



genuine nobleness, reflected in every act of life, in every 
work of brain or hand, as shall make the world acknow- 
ledge that mechanical boys are very high-class human 
machines indeed, worthy of all kindly help and encourage- 
meati 




Chapter XI. 



OUR ELECTRICAL AND PNEUMATIC APPARATUS. 




^|N the year of grace 1877, there are used both 
electrical bells and pneumatic parcels' delivery 
apparatus, and also, we believe, pneumatic 
bells, though not very generally. Now I do 
not suppose our claim will be allowed if we state that we 
were the sole originators and inventors of both these bells, 
although we do not claim the jiarcels' delivery. But the 
fact is, we were just like so many of our peculiar race. 
We talked of the possibility of doing this or that ; made 
a few more or less successful experiments, concluded that 
the idea would not work out as a practicable marketable 
invention, and so let it slip, while other more knowing 
hands made fortunes out of the very same designs. This 
is just as it should be. An inventor, if he is to reap 
pecuniary rewards, must prove himself worthy to receive 



INVENTORS. 307 



them. He must not get into his head some vague idea 
that possibly such and such things would be serviceable, 
and then fancy himself worthy of reward. He must work 
out each step of his invention until he has actually 
RENDERED it serviceable. Crude ideas are all very well as 
the seed of great results ; but if the sower of them cannot 
cultivate the tender blade as it springs up, and cannot, 
from want of necessary skill or knowledge, watch and 
cherish it till ready for harvest, he has no right to expect 
a reward. That same seed, we must remember, can be 
sown by many; and it is a fact that many persons do hit 
upon precisely the same ideas ; but whereas one who is of 
a practical turn of mind will patiently follow it up, and 
work it out step by step until he reduces it to a market- 
able commodity, another, with less patience or less energy, 
will leave it just where he found it, and consequently he 
is not to be called the inventor, although the idea occurred 
tc h'm first. Now it was just so with })neumatic and 
electric bells. We made both by way of experiment, but 
as to practical use, we stopped short of it by a very long 
distance indeed. We argued, that inasmuch as batteries 
soon cease to give out their pristine power, and as the 
slightest hole or faulty connection would destroy the air- 
tight continuity of a tube, neither electric nor pneumatic 
bells would have a permanent advantage over the usual 
system, and we therefore never troubled ourselves any 



3o8 BO Y ENGINEERS. 

more about either. We could ring a bell by either 
mode, but as to the advantage of any system, we gave 
the palm to the wire and crank, and considered the other 
two methods merely as byplay for the lecture - room or 
study. 

But if the history of any great invention is traced from 
the commencement, it will be found, generally speaking, 
that what at first was a mere lecture-room experiment, 
of no apparent practical value, was but the germ of that 
which, in the hands of the manufacturer, ultimately be- 
came of vast benefit to mankind, and of great commercial 
importance. Photography had just such a beginning. 
It had been noticed that a solution of nitrate of silver 
darkened on exposure to the light, and probably the fingers 
and clothes of our young experimentalists have often 
borne testimony to this property of the salt in question. 
Thence it became an amusement to copy leaves and other 
objects by laying them on a piece of paper saturated with 
the nitrate, and pressing the two together between two 
slips of glass, or by clamping them in a frame with a 
sheet of glass above. Exposed to the sun's rays, those 
parts of the paper unprotected by the leaf darken, and 
that immediately under the leaf remains white or nearly 
so — the leaf allowing the light to pass but slightly through 
it, and not at all where the midrib and thicker parts 
exist. A copy was thus obtained which was light 



PHOTOGRAPHY. 309 



upon a dark background, but very soon the whole paper 
became uniformly black. To prevent this, it was disco- 
vered that a solution of hyposulphate of soda would so act 
on the parts which had not been affected by the light as 
to prevent any change taking place when light was sub- 
sequently admitted, and thus it became possible to fix 
the photograph and render it far more permanent. Ulti- 
mately (for I cannot stay to trace the invention through 
its various stages) photography became what it is now — 
one of the most useful and interesting arts of the period. 

Look, again, at the toy sold to this day, which was 
called an seolipile — a small globe with bent, hollow arms, 
from which the steam of a few drops of water rushing out 
and striking the opposing air, sent the whole spinning 
round any number of times in a minute. Or, again, a 
jet of steam impinging on the vanes of a wheel gave 
rapid motion to the latter. In each case a mere child's 
toy was produced, yet herein lay the germ of our gigantic 
engines of perhaps a thousand horse power. 

While I am writ'pg, another invention is in ovo, and 
we can as yet hardly see the ultimate result. Experi- 
ments have proved that it is absolutely possible to talk 
and sing by telegraph. We have in its infancy an instru- 
ment called a telephone, by which sounds such as those 
of speech can be carried to a distance of many miles, 
and heard so distinctly that the tones of any friend's 



5IO 



BOY ENGINEERS. 



voice can be recognised. Then, again — though here the 
infant has reached a stage of larger growth — we have the 
spectroscope. It is known that a ray of sunlight passing 
through a prism of glass is divided into a band of vari- 
ously coloured rays, which are always alike and always in 
the same order. Some one found that if the spectrum 
(as the band is called) of burning metals or gases is 
taken instead of that of the sun, the colours are different 
and are crossed by dark bands, but that a spectrum of 
any one burning substance is always the same. Fiom 
this we now read the various facts of sun and star light, 
and actually can declare what gases and metals are burn- 
ing in those furnaces of the far-off luminaries ; and other 
grand facts of nature will no doubt yield up their well- 
kept secrets to the persevering inquiries of the scientific 
world. All these and similar discoveries, which will soon 
become so familiar to us all that we shall not regard them 
as anything specially marvellous, have sprung from very 
email beginnings ; and although scientific men are ofien 
set down by the ignorant as mere experimentalists, wast- 
ing time over useless if not absolutely childish pursuits, 
the world is indebted to them for the advance made year 
by year in our civilisation and commercial prosperity. 
The usual course is this : The man of science discovers a 
fact not hitherto known — some peculiar law of nature or 
of some substance in the natural world. He makes ex- 



DISCOVERY. 311 



perimeuts, testing his discovery under various conditions, 
and gradually is able with confidence and decision to 
declare the laws which govern it, and probably also to 
suggest some one or more possible applications of it. 
Then comes the practical manufacturer with his own pecu- 
liar knowledge, and adapts the facts already ascertained 
to the trade processes with which he is familiar ; while in 
all probability other manufacturers recognise the possi- 
bility of the same invention becoming serviceable to them 
also ; and what at first appeared likely to profit one class 
only, frequently turns out to be of universal value. 

But our boys will be asking who gets the profit ? That 
depends very much upon circumstances. The scientist is 
unfortunately not always nor generally a business man, 
and he is obliged, as above stated, to content himself with 
the bare facts of his discovery. Very often its applications, 
or possible adaptations, do not strike him at all. He is 
taken up with the gradual development of new facts con- 
nected with it which arise as he carries out his experi- 
ments. He has not the time nor the peculiar frame of 
mind necessary to recognise the commercial value of what 
he has discovered, and though he may gain honour as the 
inventor or discoverer, that honour does not generally 
carry with it much in the way of profit. It is an honour 
as empty probably as his own purse. The manufacturer 
reaps the pecuniary reward — sometimes a very substantial 



312 BOY ENGINEERS. 

one indeed ; but in so doing he in turn opens up in all 
probability new sources of profit for others owing to the 
close connection existing between commercial industries. 

You see, therefore, boys, that it is as well to cultivate 
business habits as to cprry on experiments in the depart- 
ment you may have selected as your own line of life ; and 
at any rate, if you should make a discovery or hit upon a 
new invention, get some real friend of extensive knowledge 
in commercial matters to give you the benefit of his 
advice ; but take care he is a real trustworthy friend 
before you take him into confidence. In no case will you 
get all the profits, and by judicious management you may 
perhaps secure your proper share. 

As regards our electric and pneumatic apparatus, we 
got wtf profits, simply, as I have explained already, because 
we did not carry our experiments far enough to become 
of practical use to any one. But how far we actually went 
I will now explain. 

"We will begin with the electrical department ; and as I 
don't know how far my readers are acquainted with the 
mysteries of batteries, and with the nature, so far as 
known, of what we call electricity, it will be necessary to 
say a few words about it by way of introduction. 

What electricity is we do not know. It has a great 
deal in common with light and heat, and it has been 
supposed to be so far identical with these that they 



ELECTRICITY. 313 

are in reality all the same under different conditions. 
They are, in fact, in a certain degre ' interchangeable, each 
'producing the other. But after all the theories which have 
in turn been advanced and rejected about the precise 
nature of these mysterious powers, we have practically to 
deal with their effects^ and, consequently, it is to these 
that our attention as practical people is chiefly directed. 

There are several modes in which we can produce 
electrical effects. If we heat a sheet of coarse brown 
paper by the fire, and rub it sharply with a piece of dry 
flannel or the coat-sleeve, we shall apparently bring to a 
state of tension its inherent electricity ; and if we hold it 
in one hand, and apply to the surface the knuckles of the 
other, a sharp snap will be heard, and a spark will 
pass from the paper to the hand, after which the former 
will renew its normal condition, or, at any rate, will have 
but slight electrical properties, which will soon cease 
altogether to exhibit themselves. 

The same sheet may be excited again an indefinite 
number of times with the same result ; and when thus 
excited, it will attract to itself dust or feathers, or other 
light substances near it, which it will retain, and after a 
while let drop and pick up again ; or, if held above the 
head, the hair will be similarly attracted, and stand 
literally on end, as it is supposed to do in cases of fright , 
but whether it does so or not I cannot say, because I 



314 BOY ENGINEERS. 



never was sufficieutly terrified to put the matter to the 
proof. 

A glass rod dried thoroughly, and rubhed with a silk 
handkerchief, will also pick up light substances, and 
behave itself similarly to the sheet of paper; but any such 
substance picked up by the one will be repelled by the other 
if held near, showing that though electricity is excited 
in each, it is of a different nature. This is generally 
called positive and negative electricity, but it might be 
called, I think, electricity of two poles, like magnetism, 
of which there is, at the ends of any magnetised bar, 
exactly a similar condition of the force, one end of the 
bar repelling, the other attracting, similar poles held near 
it. The north end of such a bar attracts the south, and 
repels the north end of a similar bar, and positively 
electrified substances repel positively, and attract nega- 
tively, electrified ones. There is no knowing why the 
electrical condition of a substance should be thus brought 
into a state of tension by friction, so as to render its exist- 
ence visible ; but there arises again here a strong sus- 
picion of its identity with heat, which we all know to be 
similarly excited ; and when we rub our hands together 
or strike them to produce warmth in winter, it is quite 
possible that, in the production of this warmth, we also 
produce a difference in their electrical condition. It may 
be said, perhaps, that unless we can arrive at some cer- 



THEORY. 315 

tainty, it is of little use to theorise on this matter at all, 
as it is quite as likely that our theory, whatever it may 
be, will ultimately prove false; hut it is impossible to go 
on with the study of any science without theory, which 
arises almost of necessity as the result of experiment. 

Suppose you had come into possession of a pair of 
balanced magnetic needles, such as are used in ships* 
compasses, and your experiments had shown you that 
both of them exercised an attractive, and yet both a 
repulsive force, as you would very soon discover. You 
would, of necessity, begin to build up the theory of mag- 
netism under two conditions. You would reason thus : 
*' Here is a peculiar force or power existing alike in both 
these needles, which seem to divide in the middle of 
them, for below a central line each attracts the same 
end of a similar needle, and above that line it repels 
that end and attracts the other." And you would be 
on the road to discover the poles of magnetic bars 
or needles ; you would see that the north pole of one 
attracts the south pole of another, and repels the north, 
and so in a similar way with the opposite ends ; and the 
further you carried on your experiments, the more pei- 
fectly would you find the theory establishing itself in your 
minds, of a positive and negative pole; for you would find 
that it is impossible to produce the one without at the same 
time producing the other. 



S 1 6 BOY ENGINEERS. 

And as soon as you had thus laid the ground-work of 
a theory of magnetism, you would find yourself in a far 
better position to continue your investigations and to 
carry on your subsequent experiments. For us, of course, 
it was only necessary to follow the beaten track already 
laid down by men of science, original research not being 
much in the way of youngsters like ourselves. We 
therefore read sufficient only of our subject to make us 
familiar witli the more generally recognised laws of 
electricity and magnetism, and then proceeded at once 
to put our knowledge to the test of experiment. We 
found that of the two means employed to generate 
electricity, chemical action was most used, as being 
easier in many respects to manage than friction. The 
first bells, however, ever made were constructed in con- 
nection with the ordinary frictional electrical machine, 
with its glass plate or cylindei and amalgamated silk 
rubber. 

The chief reason for abandoning frictional electricity as 
a source of power is the uncertainty of its action. The 
old cylinder or plate machine had generally to be coaxed 
and coddled before it would act at all. It was necessary 
to rub it dry before the fire, and leave it to become warm ; 
and even a little adherent dust would often suffice to 
weaken or wholly prevent its action. On a fine sharp 
frosty day the machine exhibited its full vigour. On a 



FRICTIONAL ELECTRICITY. 317 

damp foggy day, when, of course, some friend specially 
called to see a few experiments, these would utterly 
fail. 

This sort of waywardness would never do for trans- 
mitting telegraphic signals, or ringing-bells, or driving 
clocks ; and if no more satisfactory source of electricity 
had been discovered, we should never have arrived at our 
present perfection in such matters. Moreover, although 
frictional electricity would send forth a continuous stream 
of sparks, these were not exactly what was required. They 
might be compared to the fire of a file of musketry, being 
a succession of little explosions, which, however, could be, 
as it were, bottled up, and let off with a big bang all at 
once. 

Passing by the old story of Galvani and his wretched 
frog, there is no doubt that that vivisectionist experi- 
menter was the first to observe the electrical effects 
excited by chemical action, or, as it was then supposed, by 
the contact of metals of different degrees of oxidability. 
It was eventually shown that mere contact did not suffice, 
but that it was necessary for the metals to be acted on 
by some fluid which could affect their composition and 
change their chemical condition, generally by the process 
of dissolution. It was also found to be important that the 
solvent used should be such as would act on one metal 
more vio-orously than on the other ; and a common com- 



3 1 8 BOY ENGINEERS. 

bination was a rod of zinc and one of copper (or plates 
of these metals), acted on by a dilute solution of sulphuric 
acid and water. 

If a strip of each of these metals are placed in a tum- 
bler opposite to each other, but not in contact, and the 
tumbler be half filled with the above solution, or with 
strong salt and water, ver}' little action will be apparent 
at the surface of either metal, and none at all if the zinc 
is pure, or if it is amalgamated with mercury, by rubbing 
some over it while wet with the acid with a piece of 
cork or a bit of cotton-wool. (Don't use the fingers, or 
you may find you have become a patient for the family 
doctor by reason of mercurial poisoning.) But if now the 
upper ends of the metals are connected by a copper-wire, 
or caused to touch each other directly, a quantity of 
bubbles will rise on the surface of the zinc, and a current 
of electricity will pass, which will cease as soon as contact 
between the metals is broken. 

But I am sure my boys will ask, " How are we to know 
whether or not a current is passing at any given time ? " 
In a very simple way. You all know what a mariner's 
compass is, viz., a steel needle magnetised and suspended 
to turn freely upon a point, and this needle, if left to 
itself, will stand north and south. The ends are called 
poles, so that we have a north pole and a south pole. 
All magnetised bars have these two poles, and if you 



COMPASS. 319 



bend them like a horse-shoe, thus bringing both ends 
almost together, the poles will remain unaltered. You can 
make such a needle very easily by rubbing with a 
magnet a common sewing-needle, and passing it through 
a bit of cork to form a centre. From this you can eirher 
suspend it by a thread, so as to leave it free to turn, or 
you can float it in water ; and in each case you will find 
it airange itself so as to stand north and south. So 
mucli for our compass needle. 

Now if you set up your simple battery of zinc and 
copper, and connect the two metals with a wire reaching 
across from one to the other, and place this so that the 
wire lies north and south, you are ready to test the pas- 
sage of the current. 

The moment you bring your suspended needle over or 
under the wire, round it goes, and stands east and west, 
or at right angles to its former position. If the current, 
however, is very weak, it may not quite reach this posi- 
tion, but it will turn some distance towards it. If you 
hold the needle above the wire, it will turn in one direc- 
tion to take up its new position ; and if you hold it under- 
neath, it will turn the other way, so that you can also 
prove in which direction the current is passing, as well 
as gauge its strength. 

A little consideration will show you how to intensify 
the effect of the current. If you coil the wire so as to 



320 BOY ENGINEERS. 



form a l(i(i[i (but you mast not let the wire touch itself), 
and place tlie needle in tlie loop thus formed, the upper 
wire will act as stated, and the lower also, so that the 
needle is deflected with twofold power. 

This power can also be still increased to a very miicU 
greater extent by using what is called insulated wire, i.e.^ 
wire covered with silk, cotton, gutta-percha, or other non- 
conducting substance, and coiling it round and round a 
great many times, so that instead of the current passing 
round the needle once only, it may do so several times. 

If the wire is not thus covered, and the coils touch 
each other, they will act only as a single coil, because the 
current will pass freely from one coil to another ; but with 
insulated wire it cannot escape thus laterally, but is com- 
pelled to traverse the whole length, whether it be an inch 
or a thousand miles. 

It will be easily conceived that the necessity of always 
arranging the battery -wire north and south would be 
practically a drawback to its use, and this can be avoided 
by using an astatic needle — i.e.^ one which, having a north 
and south pole, will nevertheless stand in any position in 
which it is placed indifferently. 

This needle is simply a compound arrangement — a com- 
bination of a pair of equally magnetised needles attached 
to a common centre, to make which the simplest way is 
to magnetise two sewing-needles, so that one may have 



GAL VANOME TER. 3 2 1 

the north pole at the eye, the other at the point, and 
then to stick both in the same bit of cork, one above the 
other, the north pole of one just above the south pole of 
the other. If they are pretty equal in magnetic power, it 
is plain that the tendency of one to stand with the eye to 
the north is just counteracted by the other, which would 
fain take the opposite position, and thus the effect of the 
earth's magnetism is annihilated or balanced, which is 
practically the same thing in this case. Thus, if we 
make an astatic needle, and place it so that the lower one 
is inside the coil and the other above it, we get a power- 
ful combination, which, as it were, multiplies the effects 
of the current as many times as there are coils, and an 
instrument is made by which a very minute quantity of 
electricity passing along the wire is instantaneously de- 
tected. The instrument is called a galvanometer or gal- 
vanic multiplier. 

For ringing a bell, which requires a considerable amount 
of the mechanical power, the deflection of a needle by the 
electric current will not suflSce, but this is the ordinary 
needle-telegraph that is seen at railway stations, post- 
offices, and other places. We shall, therefore, pass on to 
another effect of the current, but we thought it as well to 
explain first of all how we could detect such a current in 
its passage along a wire where no spark or sign is visible 
to tell of its existence. 



J3 a BOY ENGINEERS. 

If a current of electricity is sent from a battery through a 
wire insulated in the manner already described, and coiled 
several times round a bar of soft iron, the iron will become 
a temporary magnet, and will continue to exhibit all the 
peculiarities of such — a north and south pole, for instancCj 
and the power to attract iron and steel — as long as the 
current continues to flow; but the moment it is interrupted 
the magnetism of the bar will cease. 

It may be mentioned also here, that a coil of wire 
through which such current is passing becomes itself 
magnetic, and if free to do so, it will place itself north 
and south — or in the magnetic meridian, as it is called — 
just the same as a magnetised needle. 

This property of the current was rapidly turned to 
several practical uses, and bell-ringing at a distance was 
one of the first. It was also thought to be a favourable 
power for use in driving machinery or actuating a clock, 
which would continue to go as long as the strength of the 
battery remained unimpaired. The bell would ring, how- 
ever, in a different manner — viz., by an interrupted cur- 
rent, as will be presently explained, the hammer striking 
as often as such interruption took place. 

It must not be supposed that a slip of zinc and one of 
copper in a tumbler would suflSce for any practical pur- 
pose, although the existence of a tolerably strong current 
is readily seen. Indeed, if, instead of a narrow strip of 



ELECTRO-MAGNETS. 323 

metal, sheets of some size are used, and the wire connecting 
them is small, the latter will be actually heated white hot 
or fused as the current passes through it. The quantity 
of electricity thus generated is indeed enormous, but ac- 
tion soon grows weaker, as the dissolved zinc interferes 
with the passage of the current ; and not only so, but 
gradually becomes deposited on the copper, thus dimi- 
nishing the exposed surfaces of the metals. The result is 
that the action of this kind of battery soon ceases alto- 
gether. Before passing, nevertheless, from this class to 
the next, we must state that the power of such a combina- 
tion was vastly increased by multiplying the elements of 
which it is made — i.e., the zinc and copper plates. Sup- 
pose a row or a circle of tumblers, in each of which is a 
plate of zinc and one of copper, but the zinc of one 
coupled to the copper of the next, and not to its own, by 
a copper wire soldered to the metals. The last of the 
series would be a solitary zinc on the one side, and an 
equally solitary copper at the other. To each of these a 
wire is soldered, and any object or arrangement intended 
to be affected by the current is placed between these two 
wires so as to complete the connection, or the wires may 
be themselves brought into contact, when a current will 
pass. This current is not great in quantity unless large 
plates are used, but it is of great intensity, producing 
effects which a single pair of large plates, equal in size 



324 BOY ENGINEERS. 

to the whole set thus arranged, will not supply. It is 
not easy to explain quantity and intensity, but the best 
example of it in another substance is steam. In the 
boiler, it is in a state of high tension or intensity, but- 
the quantity is no more than if we release it, when it will 
form a large cloud, but though the same amount of steam 
is there, it floats idly above us. It is quantity which in 
the boiler becomes intensity. The heating power of a cur- 
rent is always seen best when a large pair of plates are 
used, or where the electric current is large in quantity and 
the wire so small that it cannot conduct it fast enough, 
the heat arising, it is supposed, from resistance, as the 
smaller wire will fuse, while a large bar as the conduct- 
ing medium will be scarcely warmed. 

Electricity in quantity, however, without intensity, will 
not manifest other serviceable peculiarities. It will not, 
for instance, produce chemical decomposition, such as 
dissolving water into its constituent gases, oxygen and 
hydrogen, or effect chemical changes in other sub- 
stances, unless the different elements in those substances 
are but freely held together in their natural state. We 
shall, however, probably recur again to this action cf the 
current, when we speak, as we propose to do, of electro- 
typing and electroplating. We must now return from 
our wanderings to the bell, the construction of which was 
and is very simple. The battery, however, being of 



BATTERY. 325 

necessity one needing great permanency of action, we 
must speak of it first, as the simple pair of plates would 
probably cease to act in an hour or less. 

Professor Daniell was the first to inquire into the 
causes of decreasing action in a galvanic battery, and to 
devise a remedy. He first of all directed his attention to 
the escape of hydrogen gas, which rose in thousands of 
bubbles as the acid acted upon the zinc and dissolved it, 
carrying off with it in its ascent a good deal of electricity, 
but a great quantit\' of this gas adhered also in bubbles 
to the surface of the copper, and the zinc being also 
dissolved and forming an oxide, the solution became 
saturated and weakened, and by and by the same oxide of 
zinc depositing upon the surface of the copper, action 
wholly ceased. The solution of the difficulty lay in pre- 
venting, if possible, the evolution of hydrogen and forma- 
tion of the zinc oxide, or, at any rate, in preventing its 
deposition upon the copper plate. This was accomplished 
by enclosing the zinc in a porous vessel with its acid 
solution, and thus keeping it apart from the copper. 
The porous diaphragm may be of brown paper, sail- 
cloth, pipeclay, or plaster of Paris, which last is generally 
nsed, or of ordinary china, in the state called biscuit, i.e.^ 
before it has been glazed and fully baked. This inner 
vessel (for it is generally arranged so as to stand inside 
the others) may be filled with the sulphuric acid solution, 



3*6 BOY ENGINEERS. 

or with salt and water, muriate of ammonia, and possibly 
some other solutions ; but these do not come into contact 
with the copper, which is surrounded with a solution cf 
sulphate of that metal, constantly replenished and kept up 
to a state of saturation by crystals of the salt resting on 
a shelf just level with the surface of the liquid. How 
then does this become weakened so as to need such fresh 
supplies of the salt? By the action of the rising hydrogen, 
which combines with the oxygen of the zinc oxide, and 
now reduces the copper and deposits it in a metallic state 
on the surface of the copper plate, which is thus con- 
stantly renewed. If sulphuric acid is used as the exciting 
solution, the surface of the zinc is amalgamated as stated 
above, and then no local action takes place until the two 
metals are united by the connecting wire or band, and 
then the zinc is only dissolved very slowly indeed, while 
tlie electric action is steady and powerful. The copper 
deposit is of a beautiful red colour and is pure copper. 
Thus it is evident that the action of this battery, unlike 
that of the two elements with a single solution, may be 
kept up for a very long time without any important 
diminution of power, the disturbing causes which render 
the simpler battery rapidly weaker being wholly removed. 
It is therefore called Daniell's constant battery, and was 
the one which we always used, because it was easily and 
cheaply made, and also very convenient. 



OUR BAT2ERY. 



1^1 



Generally speaking, a Daniell cell consists of a solid 
rod of zinc, standing in a porous plaster tube — the rod 
being about half to three-quarter inch diameter, and the 




Fig. 26 — Daniell'B GalTanic Bell. 



porous tube an inch and a half: its size is of no great 
importance. This stands in a cylindrical copper vessel the 
same height as the porous tube and zinc rod, this outer 
Vessel forming the copper element of the battery, and 



328 BOY ENGiA'EERS. 

being about the size of a common one pound gallipot. 
Inside is general!}- a shelf of perforated copper, and this, 
which is circular, forms also a support to the inner porous 
tube containing the zinc rod. Keeping of course the 
principle of this battery, we made ours as follows, which 
is an equally eflScient plan, and more easily constructed. 

Fig. 26, A is a common earthenware jam-pot, calculated 
to hold a pint of solution. Inside it is a plate of copper, 
B, about as thick as a sheet of ordinary pasteboard, the 
substance being of no importance, because all action takes 
place upon the surface of the plate only. Too thin a plate 
is, however, inconvenient, because it does not give a good 
support to the conducting wire which is soldered to it, 
but if it is very thin, it will be as well to let the wire 
go quite down it to the bottom, and to solder the whole 
length, which will stiffen it. This plate is of such a size 
that, when bent round into a cylindrical form, it just fits 
the pot, resting close like a lining inside it. It need not 
be soldered, because the pot in which it is placed holds 
the solution. The porous cell C we made thus : We 
ko(^k a sheet of stiff but not very thick brown paper, and 
coiled it to form a cylinder, which we joined with stiff 
gum- water up the side. When dry, we cut out a round 
piece of wood in the lathe to form the bottom, which we 
put in place, and secured with two or three small pegs of 
hard wood. This cell was about half the diameter of the 



OUR BATTERY. 329 



outer one. To stiffen and make it of a more permanent 
character, we now painted it all over on the outside with 
plaster of Paris of the consistence of thick cream, which we 
laid on with a hog's-hair flat brush, purposely leaving this 
coat in a very rough state. We also plastered the bottom 
to render the cell water-tight. "When dry, which it soon 
became, we repeated the process with a stiffer coat, laid 
on in the same way, and also poured a little of it inside 
so as to make a more solid bottom. When this was dry, 
we rubbed it down to reduce it to a smooth surface 
for the sake of appearance, just as we do many things 
equally useless, for it would have answered as well iu the 
rough state. We now had a very fair cell, very porous, 
and suflBciently stiff if carefully used to last a long time, 
but it was not much thicker even with a third finishing 
coat than stout cardboard. We finished it by drying in 
the oven. 

Our zincs we first thought of casting, but we sub- 
sequently determined to use sheet-metal instead, as easily 
procurable with a nice smooth surface ; and we therefore 
cut it out and amalgamated it on both sides, and then 
coiled it into the form of a cylinder, as we had previously 
done with the copper, so as to line, but not press, the 
porous cell. The amalgamation of the inside of this zinc 
cylinder was solely to protect it against undue local 
action, for we had already learned that it was only the 



330 BO Y ENGINEERS. 



outer face which was opposed to the inner face of the 
copper which had any effect in producing the electric 
current. Hence, also, the cast rods are as effective as 
the coiled zinc plate, and being harder in practice, owing 
to greater steadiness caused by their weight, are generally 
used by the makers of electrical apparatus. A copper 
wire was soldered to the zinc, and to give elasticity and 
freedom in arranging cells side by side, or connecting 
them with other apparatus, this wire was coiled round 
a rod a few times to convert it into a helix, the rod being 
afterwards removed. By this means it was an easy 
matter to lengthen or shorten these connecting wires as 
might be necessary, and there was less danger of upsetting 
pot and all in adjusting them, as not unfrequently 
happens when there is no such elasticity provided. A 
singfle cell thus constructed instantlv raised to a white 
heat a few inches of thin platinum wire connected to the 
ends of the copper wires by being twisted round each, 
and a bar of soft iron three or four inches long, surrounded 
by a few coils of covered copper wire (the size of bell- 
wire), became strongly magnetic when the ends of the 
coil were connected to those of the battery. We made, 
however, a set of four of these half-pint cells, and with 
these we were able not only to sound a bell at any 
required distance, but to carry on an extensive course of 
experiments, including the working of a telegraph and 



OUR BATTERY. 331 



simple clock, which had but one fault — it did not keep 
correct time I 

Since the days of those early experiments, a great 
many forms of battery have been invented and put to the 
proof, but Daniell's, in a modified form, still bears the 
palm as an efficient and easily-constructed arrangement, 
calculated to bear the wear and tear of rough usage, and 
of which the copper element is saleable at any time at 
a good price as old metal. It is, in fact, from the very 
nature of the arrangement, absolutely improved and 
thickened by use, and it is only the zinc element and the 
porous cell which require renewal. 

Of course, we spoilt our clothes, and made the usual 
messes with our acid solutions, but all was carried on in 
our workshop, where no carpets or curtains existed, so 
that we did no great harm. Here, then, at a small cost, 
we possessed a battery quite equal to our need, and 
although we subsequently took a turn at electrical work 
with other forms of battery by way of experiment, our 
bell was connected with this simple arrangement of 
Daniell's, and I shall now describe it in detail before 
proceeding to speak of other apparatus of a similai 
nature. 

First, there is a mahogany board or base, and upon it 
is fixed by a screw the horse-shoe electro-magnet D. 
This is a bar of soft iron, round which is wound in two 



332 BOY ENGINEERS. 

coils a quantity of insulated copper wire covered with silk 
or sealing-wax, varnished for neatness, and to preserve 
it from injury. The wire, it must be understood, is 
wound first on one leg or side of the horse-shoe, and then 
carried across and wound in the same direction round 
the other. The ends are left out and carried to SS, two 
brass screws. FG is a piece of watch-spring, on which 
at FG two small lumps of steel are soldered, or one lump 
extending over both poles of the magnet. This is called 
the keeper. The spring is fixed on the top of an upright 
rod of brass or wood, K, screwed firmly to the stand. T 
is the bell, an old clock-bell, fixed as shown, and H is the 
hammer, which does not touch it quite even when the 
keeper is drawn down; but when this happens, the sudden 
jerk causes the hammer to strike, owing to its being on 
the end of a spring. If, however, the keeper is gently 
lowered with the finger till it rests on the poles of the 
magnet, the hammer is about one-sixteenth of an inch 
off the bell. This is necessary, or the sound would not 
be a clear sharp sound, but a dull jarring one ; and in all 
cases hammers to strike bells are so poised as to R])ring 
back a little after the stroke is made, and not to rest 
upon the bell. The hammers of a pianoforte also leave 
the wire the instant the note is struck. 

"We have explained that the electro-magnet has no 
attractive power unless a current of electricity is passing 



ELECTRIC BELL. 333 

round it. In this case, the current is produced by the 
battery above it ; but, as sketched, no current will pass, 
because there is no connection between the zinc and 
copper or positive and negative poles of the battery. No 
action is therefore going on ; the soft iron is not magnetic, 
and the bell does not ring. 

Now look at the apparatus marked M. It is, like the 
other, a stout board of mahogany standing on four knobs 
or legs, which are of no special importance. Ris a roller 
of wood turning on pivots at each end ; P, which is fixed 
to it, is a flat plate of tolerably stout brass, held up a 
little above the horizontal position by a short coiled 
spring, 0. Q is another but lighter spring just press- 
ing on P, so as to be in perfect contact with it, whether 
it is in the position here shown or pressed down, but it 
is not strong enough to resist the action of the spring, 0. 
N is a cup-shaped hollow in the mahogany board, into 
which projects the end of the wire W, inserted from 
underneath, and this hollow is filled with mercury — with 
which also the point of the wire is amalgamated, thus 
ensuring perfect contact. A pointed brass wire is soldered 
into the part P, so as to dip into the mercury when P 
is pressed down b} placing the finger on the flat -headed 
screw seen above it, which is not absolutely necessary, 
as the finger might be laid directly upon P, but it gives 
a finish to the apparatus. A wire from S is in metallic 



334 BOY ENGINEERS. 

contact with the spring Q. Let the pointed wire now bt 
depressed into the mercury. The connection is at once 
established between the two poles of the battery, and is 
also made to pass round the coils which surround the 
magnet. Starting from Z, the zinc end of the battery, 
it will pass by N to the mercury, thence by P and the 
spring R to S, where it meets the end of the coil. 
Passing round this it goes to S at the left hand of the 
apparatus, and thence to the copper element of the battery, 
completing the circuit. But the moment communication 
is thus established, FG is attracted and goes down with 
a jerk, causing H to strike the bell very sharply ; for so 
instantaneous is the action, that no measurable time 
exists between the depression of P and the stroke 
of the bell, which can be repeated as often as desired 
by depressing P and allowing it to rise again, and 
thus a succession of strokes can be made on the bell at 
pleasure. 

In order to bring all the apparatus into one picture, 
M is represented close to the other piece of apparatus, 
but it is not so in reality. The battery A may be, for 
instance, with the bell and its adjuncts, in the kitchen, 
or the battery may be in the cellar, and the bell in the 
kitchen, with a wire from one to the other. But M must 
be in the room from which the bell is to be rung — i.e.y 
in the parlour or sitting-room, as tie wire connecting S 



ELECTRIC BELL, 335 

and Q may be of any desired length, and also that from 
the battery to N. Miles and yards are all one in making 
electrical connections ; although, of course, with very long 
wires more care is necessary to prevent the damp atmos- 
phere and other causes from aiFecting the completeness of 
the circuit. When the apparatus is required within the 
house only, insulated wire alone should be used, as it is 
not very expensive, and saves battery power; but for longer 
circuits, where it would be too costly, more battery power 
is needed to make up for waste of electricity by its escape 
into the atmosphere, or from other causes which affect 
it. In damp weather electrical apparatus never acts so 
well as in dry weather. 

It is evident that every time the handle of P is 
depressed one stroke will be given, so that to ring a good 
peal, P must be depressed rapidly a great many times. 
But this need not be done by making an alteration in 
the arrangement. Let the wire from the right-hand coil 
be brought to the base of the pillar K, and soldered to it. 
As the pillar is metal, and also the horizontal spring, 
both these will become parts of the circuit along which 
the current will pass. The wire twisted round the pillar 
being insulated (covered with cotton, or sealing-wax, or 
gutta-percha), will not take up any part of the current 
which passes along K, and the end of it is attached to Q. 
Of course, as explained, the length of this wire is of no 



33^ BOY ENGINEERS. 

importance. The end above K is bent over and rests on 
the spring G ; and to make more certain the metallic 
contact, both should be amalgamated, but they will do 
without. The dotted wire at S leading to Q is of course 
not in this case used, and there must be no connection 
made here. 

Let P now be depressed as before. The current will 
leave the zinc as before, pass to the mercury cup, thence 
along P and Q, where now there is attached the end of the 
coiled wire K ; up this coil to the horizontal spring, thence 
down the brass-pillar to the magnet, and back to the 
battery. The moment this connection is made, down goes 
the keeper, and the bell is struck ; but no sooner does 
this occur than connection is broken, because the curved 
end of the wire K no longer touches the spring, and as 
the magnetism of DD instantly ceases, up flies the 
keeper. But then connection is immediately made again 
by the horizontal spring touching the bent wire, and 
another stroke is given on the bell, and this goes on inces- 
santly as long as the pressure of the finger on P continues, 
the spring with the hammer oscillating at a tremendous 
pace, and making such a row on the bell as would awaken 
the Seven Sleepers. The board E may be screwed to a wall, 
and the whole arrangement may be considerably modified. 
In the drawing, DD should be nearer K, so that there 
may be a longer bit of the spring between J and H, to 



ELECTRIC BELL. 337 

give more elasticity to the hammer, or the latter may miss 
striking if the current should get weak. 

If the plan here given is to be carried out exactly for 
practical use in a house, the board M and its fittings may 
be let into the wall, and the knob on P need be shown, 
which may be of china or ivory. A still easier apparatus 
to make would be arranged by forming P of a bit of toler- 
ably stiff clock-spring, fixed into the board at one end, 
and so bent as to btand up a little above it at the other 
end. It would not then need the supplementary springs 
Q and 0, nor the roller and its bearings. For actual 
use it would be much better thus modified. 

Possibly some of our young readers may wish to repeat 
the above experiment, and fit up one or more electric 
bells or other electric apparatus themselves ; and so, before 
speaking of our pneumatic bell, we will add a little to the 
information already given. 

There are in these electrical machines several connections 
to be made, to complete the current as it is called. Now 
it is absolutely essential in all cases that the metallic 
contact should be perfect. A little dust getting in at the 
places in question would be fatal, and rust and other 
causes sadly interfere with the passage of the current 
from on 3 part to another. Whenever, then, you find 
such apparatus fail to work, always suspect the connec- 
tions, for here you will generally discover the cause of 



338 BOY ENGINEERS. 

failure. Copper wire and brass are more generally used 
than iron or steel, and these should always be wetted with 
sulphuric acid, and have a little mercury rubbed on to 
amalgamate parts which are to come into contact. 

Where a steel spring has to be used, it is a common 
plan to solder a bit of platinum foil to any part which is 
to form a point of contact of this nature, because this 
metal is not liable to rust, and is a good conductor of 
electricitj^ When copper wire covered with silk or cotton 
is used to make a coil like DD, it should be carefully 
examined to see that it is really well covered, because 
otherwise the current will pass at the uncovered part to 
the iron, and be of no avail for the intended purpose. 

You can make a magnet with plain copper wire if you 
are on your guard in this respect, thus : Wind a bit of 
silk or worsted or a strip of flannel or any non-conductor 
round your iron bar so as to cover it ; or turn a bit of 
wood like a cotton reel, with very broad flanges at the 
ends, and bore it till it will slip over the iron, making 
one for each limb, or wrap paper or card round it. 
The big reels will be the best, because they will prevent 
the coils from slipping. Now coil the copper wire round, 
leaving the coil» sufficiently open to preclude all chance 
of their accidentally touching each other at any point. 
Wrap this round, as before, with a bit of silk or flannel, 
and tlien wind the coil back over the first ; and so on till 



GALVANIC APPARATUS. 339 

you have added us many coils one over another as you 
wish to have. Wrap the last with a bit of green silk, or 
rarnish it with red sealing-wax — varnish made by dissolv- 
ing the wax in spirit of wine — and you will have a per- 
fectly efficient electro-magnet, but it will have cost a little 
more trouble to make. In every case, even when covered 
copper wire is used, it is better not to wrap it directly od 
the iron, but to use what I have called the big cottop 
reels, or a covering of card. The cotton reels, however, 
having broad ends, allow you to coil the wire very neatlj 
on them, and when the last coil is on, and the whole 
wrapped round, and the wood varnished, the apparatus 
will present the neat and workmanlike ai)pearance so 
attractive in apparatus bought at the philosophical instru- 
ment maker's. 

Covered wire is not expensive by any means, and can 
be bought at scores of places in London and often in large 
towns; and there is no better exercise for mind and hand 
than to make all the apparatus needed, instead of buying 
it. Merely twisting the ends of wires together, after 
taking oflF the cotton or silk, will form a metallic connec- 
tion between them, but it is better, in addition, to solder 
them wherever possible. 

I have said nothing yet of the cup-like hollow N filled 
with mercury. This is an old and excellent way of 
forming a connection. If the wires dipping into the 



3 40 BOY ENGINEERS. 

mercury are themselves coated with that metal, uothing 
can be more perfect than the contact thus attainable. 
The experimenter should, however, be cautioned that the 
mercury will effectually spoil any gold with which it 
comes into contact, because it forms with it a very brittle 
amalgam. Rings and chains and gold watches should 
never be worn, therefore, when mercury is to be used for 
any purpose. In my younger days I had no such diffi- 
culties to contend against, because I had no gold at any 
time ; but boys are somewhat changed to what they were — 
(the more the pity), and get hold of cheap jewellery and 
cheaper cigars, and other like abominations, which take 
away the old boyish energy and manliness, and substitute 
a priggishness and unnatural precociousness which ia 
detestable. In old days, boys had no ambition to ba 
anything else, and were rather inclined to regret the fact 
that marbles, tops, and other treasures must soon be laid 
aside for the more serious pursuits of real life. But 
nowadays boys wish to be thought men, and fancy that 
by poking nasty cigars and pipes into their lips, dangling 
a watch-chain, and wearing rings and shirt-studs and 
pins, they look like their elders. Poor fellows ! how they 
must inwardly lament the absence of whiskers and the 
deep voice of manhood, which they vainly strive to imitate. 
This book will be useless to young prigs like these ; but 
as long as we have a few real hearty English boys left, 



METALLIC CONTACT, 341 



there will be some worthy of our best exertions in 
writing for their benefit, and it will give us pleasure to 
help them in all possible ways to amuse themselves pro- 
fitably during leisure hours and during their much-valued 
holidays. A very extraordinary circumstance connected 
with electro-magnets must be mentioned here, as we shall 
hnve to refer to it again by and by. Suppose the ends 
of the coil wrapped round the magnet to be connected 
with the battery, by any means that will cause the 
current to flow and to stop alternately at will (as, for 
instance, the method adopted in the last case for pro- 
ducing a rapid succession of strokes upon the bell). 
Now suppose that a very fine covered wire is wrapped 
round over the first coil — a great length is necessary 
compared with that of the first or primary coil — and the 
ends of the secondary coil are connected with a galvano- 
meter or compass needle as already described, so as to 
enable us to detect the passage of a current by electricity 
if such should occur. If the ends of the first wire are 
connected immediately with the battery by being attached 
to its plates or to its terminal wires, and the ends of the 
secondary fine coil are attached to the galvanometer, the 
needle remains steady; but if contact is broken for an 
instant between the first coil and the battery, the needle 
is instantly deflected, but only for a moment; and if the 
contact is then made again, it is deflected momentarily in 



34* BO Y ENGINEERS. 

the opposite direction, thus proving a current of electricity 
to be passing in tlie second coil of fine wire. Yet observe, 
this secondary fine coil has no connection whatever with 
the battery, and is also entirely insulated from the wire of 
the main coil over which it is wound ; no current passes 
except at the moment contact is broken or renewed 
between the battery and the primary coil. A simple way 
of causing a rapid succession of currents to pass is to 
attach one end of the battery wire to a file by twisting it 
round it at the tang, and then taking the end of the 
primary coil and running it down the teeth of the file. A 
stream of sparks will be produced, and the needle will oscil- 
late with great rapidity, as contact is made and broken at 
every tooth of the file over which the wire passes. Instead 
of the galvanometer as a test of the passing current, the 
latter may be detected in another way which will afford 
very tangible proofs of its existence. The ends of 
the fine wire having had about six inches of the silk or 
cotton covering removed, are to be wrapped round two 
pieces of sponge, which should be wetted with salt and 
water, and grasped firmly one in each hand. Let some 
one now make contact with the file as before. A succes- 
sion of shocks more or less painful will pass through the 
arms and hands, the sensation being much like a repeated 
series of cramps or spasmodic contractions of the muscles, 
far from pleasant, and the worst of it is, that if the 



SE CONDAM Y CURRENTS. 343 

current is a strong one there is no power to relax the 
grasp and drop the sponges. I might tell 3'ou boys a 
tale of my own early freaks in electricity. Well, it was 
no great misdeed, but only of a bit of rather cruel fun 
which I had in company with a young doctor, almost a-s 
much of a boy as I was myself at the time. 

The aforesaid doctor had a groom, who was also a sort 
of man-of-all-work, carrying out medicine, helping to 
pound drugs, and to hold refractory patients who objected 
to surgical operations. This man had but one eye of any 
practical use, for though the other was there, it was 
opaque and sightless, with a tendency to squint, which 
gave to the face a most grotesque appearance. The doc- 
tor had recently purchased a battery and coil for experi- 
menting on cases of rheumatism, and the force of the 
shock could be regulated to great nicety, from such as a 
strong man would hardly care to try as an amusement, to 
such as would not injure a delicate child. Such instru- 
ments are common enough now, but were then not gener- 
ally known, and somewhat expensive. After dining one 
day with the doctor, I began inquiring about his instru- 
ments and so forth, as I was fond of surgical matters, and 
used to find great delight in overhauling cases of instru- 
ments of torture. At last I got hold of his new galvanic 
apparatus, which he essayed to explain ; but, except a 
dog and an old Tom-cat, we could find no suitable sub- 



344 BOY ENGINEERS. 

ject for experiments which we graciously declined to try 
upon our own august persons. All at once we espied 
Thomas, who had just returned from carrying out a bas- 
ket of drugs. Poor Thomas I Little experience had he of 
galvanism, but I think he had a lesson on that eventful 
day. Suffice it that we got him to lay hold of the 
sponges, and we turned on the full power of the battery. 
He wriggled, he twisted, he fairly roared — and so did we, 
but at last the wire gave way and he was free. And now, 
boys, I must ask to be free too, for we have had a good 
many hours together over various mechanical subjects, 
and once more I must say " Adieu." Possibly I may 
address you, however, once more, and detail a few more 
of oar early experiments as 

Boy Engineers. 



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